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PHILIP OF TEXAS
A STORY OF SHEEP RAISING IN TEXAS
BY
JAMES OTIS
NEW YORK •:• CINCINNATI •:• CHICAGO
AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY
JAMES OTIS'S PIONEER SERIES
ANTOINE OF OREGON: A STORY OF THE OREGON TRAIL.
BENJAMIN OF OHIO: A STORY OF THE SETTLEMENT OE
MARIETTA.
HANNAH OF KENTUCKY: A STORY OF THE WILDERNESS
ROAD.
MARTHA OF CALIFORNIA: A STORY OF THE CALIFORNIA
•
TRAIL.
PHILIP OF TEXAS: A STORY OF SHEEP RAISING IN TEXAS.
SETH OF COLORADO: A STORY OF THE SETTLEMENT OF
DENVER.
T:. K
' w ' ' .- *
COPYRf GJHf, ;191<1 1910: BY
" '
' MRS. A. L. K
COPYRIGHT, 1913, IN GFEA.T
>K VE3A8.
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K. f . 2.
AR*
ENUJ
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FOREWORD
THE author of this series of stories for children
has endeavored simply to show why and how the
descendants of the early colonists fought their way
through the wilderness in search of new homes. The
several narratives deal with the struggles of those
adventurous people who forced their way westward,
•**.-** - *
„* , j « .» *»
ever westward;, >'whe|h(£r in hope tff gain or in answer
to "the call of • f h© • y.dld," ' and who, in so doing,
' • 3* ' '' *
wrote their names" with their blood across this
* * * i 3
1 — " ! *
country of ours from the Ohio to the Columbia.
To excite in the hearts of the young people of
this land a desire to know more regarding the build-
ing up of this great nation, and at the same time
to entertain in such a manner as may stimulate to
noble deeds, is the real aim of these stories. In them
there is nothing of romance, but only a careful,
truthful record of the part played by children in
the great battles with those forces, human as well
as natural, which, for so long a time, held a vast
^"
X
4 FOREWORD
portion of this broad land against the advance of
home seekers.
With the knowledge of what has been done by
our own people in our own land, surely there is
no reason why one should resort to fiction in order
to depict scenes of heroism, daring, and sublime
disregard of suffering in nearly every form.
JAMES OTIS.
PROPERTY OF THE
CITY OF NEW YORK
PHILIP OF TEXAS
MY DREAMS OF A SHEEP RANCH
THE day I was twelve years old, father gave me
twelve ewes out of his flock of seventy-two, counting
these sheep as payment for the work I had done in
tending them. Even at that time I thought myself
a good shepherd, for I was able to keep a small flock
well together.
10
PHILIP OF TEXAS
With Gyp, our dog, I could have herded five hun-
dred as readily as I did seventy-two, because on our
plantation in Mississippi the pastures were fenced.
Therefore when father began to talk of moving to
$%* - -_^'^/'-23l»$*3r&J^k3
Texas and there making
a venture in the cattle
business, I decided at
once that if he did so,
it should be my aim to raise sheep. With this idea I
gathered from the neighbors roundabout, who had larger
flocks than ours, all the possible information about the
business in our own state.
SHEEP RAISING
A sheep in order to thrive should have not less than
two acres of fairly good pasturage in which to roam.
SHEEP RAISING n
Much less than that amount of land would provide
a sheep with food in case it was inclosed; but on the
range, where the flock is turned out to feed over a large
extent of country, the animals are inclined to "bunch,"
as the herders call it; that is, to keep in close company
and wander here or there trampling down the grass
without eating it.
A sheep will yield about five pounds of wool each
year, and you can count that each animal in a herd
will give you one dollar's worth of its fleece annu-
ally. Of course there is considerable expense, if one
is obliged to pay for shearing, or for dipping, in case
that disease known as "scab" comes among the flock.
I have known a sheep raiser to pay four cents a
head to the Mexican shepherds simply for dipping
the flock ; that is to say, for giving each animal a
bath in a certain mixture in order to drive out dis-
temper which, in sheep, is like the mange that comes
upon dogs.
Then it is pretty certain that during the year there
will be as many lambs born as there are sheep in the
flock, and if a sheep is worth five dollars, you can
reckon the lamb at three, for it will be a yearling
in twelve months, and a full-grown sheep a year
later. So one can say that every sheep worth five
dollars will bring in a profit of four dollars each year,
less the expense of keeping.
I2 PHILIP OF TEXAS
HERDING SHEEP
Suppose you have a flock of five hundred sheep.
They will "herd," as sheepmen say, which means,
keep nearly together, within a space around which a
man can ordinarily walk two or three times a day, to
prevent the wilder ones from straying.
When the flock is driven out on the range from the
pens, they are kept moving a mile or two, while the shep-
herd walks around the flock, talking to them, so that
they may hear his voice ; the animals pick up mouth-
fuls of grass now and then, even while being driven.
In rainy or cold weather, sheep walk much more
rapidly than they do when it is warm; therefore the
shepherd has more work to do. In very hot, dry
weather, they will often not feed in the daytime, but
• continue eating until late in the night, and then the
herder has his work cut out, for those are long days
from sunrise until nine or ten o'clock.
But think of the profit of five hundred sheep in one
year ! Suppose they cost you for herding, shearing,
and dipping, in case you cannot manage the flock
yourself, three hundred dollars. You get two thousand
dollars for the wool and the increase in the flock, and
pay out three hundred. This leaves seventeen hun-
dred dollars clear profit in one year from five hundred
sheep, and that is not a large flock.
HERDING SHEEP 13
Of course if the scab gets among the sheep, or the
Indians kill many, or the wolves can't be kept away,
there will be more or less loss which must come out
of the seventeen hundred dollars; but take it all in
all, unless one has very hard luck, it seems to me he
should be able to count on at least a thousand dollars
profit from five hundred sheep.
Now it might seem as if this matter of raising sheep,
and the profit to be had from them, could have no in-
fluence in deciding my going from the state of Missis-
sippi to the republic of Texas, and yet if it had not
14 PHILIP OF TEXAS
been for my hope of one day owning a big sheep ranch,
I would not have been so delighted when father be-
gan to talk of making a new home in that country
which had so lately separated from Mexico.
SOMETHING ABOUT TEXAS
One might suppose that my father was a shiftless sort
of man to make a change of homes after he had a boy
twelve years old ; but that is not the fact, as you will
understand when I tell you why we sold the plantation
in Mississippi, where we were raising fairly good crops
of cotton, to embark in the cattle business in Texas.
Of course, it is not necessary for me to relate that the
people in Texas declared themselves independent of
Mexico in the year 1836, as in 1776 the colonists de-
termined to be free men in a free country, and so
broke away from England and England's king.
No doubt you already know that it was on the twenty-
second day of April in the year 1836, the day after the bat-
tle of San Jacinto, that General Houston captured the
Mexican general, Santa Anna; a treaty was then
made between Texas and Mexico, which allowed the
Texans to become an independent nation. You are
also acquainted with the troubles in Texas, when, in
the year 1840, the Comanches overran the country,
and you have heard of the capture of the town of San
Antonio by the Mexicans in September of the year 1842.
LAND GRANTS 15
LAND GRANTS
All this has little to do with what I am going to tell
in regard to my going into the sheep business; yet
if all those things had not happened, then President
Lamar and President Houston might not have been
able to make grants of land to people who were willing
to come into the country and build homes.
mf
There were a number of men who succeeded in getting
so-called grants from the Texan government. Among
these there was a certain Mr. Peters, - - 1 never knew
his first name, - who had obtained a grant of an ex-
ceedingly large tract of land in the northern part. It
was, so father had been told, the best land in Texas;
and in order to gain settlers, Mr. Peters agreed to
give outright to the head of every family six hundred
and forty acres of land, and to each single man three
hundred and twenty acres.
Now, of course, my father was the head of a family,
although mother and I were the only other members
of it ; nevertheless he would receive just as many acres
of land as though he had a dozen children.
When the matter was first talked about among our
neighbors in Mississippi, I hoped I might be counted
as a single man; but I was very soon made to under-
»
stand that a lad of twelve years was mistaken when
he reckoned himself of sufficient age to have given him
PHILIP OF TEXAS — 2
i6
PHILIP OF TEXAS
three hundred and twenty acres of land simply for
going into a country and living there.
THE " TEXAS FEVER'
Because of this offer by Mr. Peters, the people
around us, whose plantations were not particularly
valuable, were highly excited, for all had heard how
rich was the land in the republic of Texas, and how
well it was adapted for cattle raising.
While mother and father were talking the matter
over, trying to decide whether they would go into
THE TEXAS FEVER' 17
Peters's colony, I heard him tell her that already a
great many people from Missouri, Illinois, Indiana,
and Kentucky, as well as from our state, had gone
there and had sent back the most cheering words
regarding the possibility of making money in that new
country.
Perhaps I should say that this grant was made to
the Peters colony early in the year 1842, but it was not
until the spring of the next year that father began to
have what some of our neighbors laughingly called
the " Texas Fever "; and I took it because of the possi-
bilities of raising sheep.
It was just about this time that the Texans began
to talk of being annexed to the United States, for their
republic was not so flourishing as many would have
liked to see it. The country was in debt to the amount
of nearly seven million dollars, so I heard father say,
and the people stood in fear of the Mexicans on the
one side, who were ever ready to make trouble, and of
the Indians on the other, to say nothing of the wild
beasts everywhere.
Such a thinly settled country could not raise large
armies to fight off their enemies, and those people who
had been living for some time in Texas believed that
if their republic could become a part of the United
States, they would have all the soldiers that were
needed to keep peace in the land.
i8
PHILIP OF TEXAS
WHY I WANTED TO GO INTO TEXAS
Of all this I knew very little at the time father
was talking about making a new home, and I cared
less, for my mind was filled en-
tirely with the idea of one day
owning a large sheep ranch.
From the time I began to take care of father's flock
I had heard people, lately come from Texas, declare
that that was the one spot in all the wide world
where sheep could be raised easily and at small cost.
There were other reasons besides this which caused
me to hope that my father would decide to make a
change of homes. I had heard that the ponies, which
HUNTING IN TEXAS 19
the Texans called mustangs, could be bought for from
eight to twenty dollars each, and that they cost no
more to keep than ordinary cows, for they did not
require grain. Now, in all my life, I had never owned
either horse or pony, for the only driving animals on
our Mississippi plantation had been mules.
HUNTING IN TEXAS
I had also read that there was much good hunting
in Texas, and that one need not go very far afield in
order to find plenty of bears; in fact, that there were
too many for the comfort of the sheep raisers. I knew
also that deer were to be found in large numbers and
that there were cougars, which are called Mexican lions,
20
PHILIP OF TEXAS
and panthers, together with wildcats and wolves.
Fancy such a list of game as that for a fellow who was
as fond of shooting as I was !
.Then again, one of our neighbors who had been in
Texas told me of the wild hogs, or peccaries, as they
are sometimes called, that go in droves of from half a
dozen to twenty or thirty,
and, are very fierce when
stirred up.
The wolves concerned me .most just then, for you
know that these animals are exceedingly fond of sheep,
and he who herds a flock on the range must keep
his eyes wide open for those four-footed enemies.
Three kinds of wolves were to be found in Texas:
the black wolf which was rare, the coyote, and the
FATHER GOES TO SPY OUT THE LAND 21
lobo or gray wolf. The last two were great sheep
stealers and many in number.
It seemed to me then, as it has many times since,
that it would be great sport to hunt those sheep eaters
and lay up a goodly stock of their pelts, for a wolf
hide, when taken in the proper season, makes an ex-
cellent bed covering, whether it be in a house or on
the open prairie.
f
From the time that father began to talk of joining
Peters' s colony, I spent a good portion of my time
learning all that was possible concerning this republic,
the people of which were eager to come into the United
States. I found, as any one can who will make diligent
search, the most interesting stories not only about
hunting, but about the early troubles between Texas
and Mexico, the Texans' fight for independence, and
the many Indian raids.
FATHER GOES TO SPY OUT THE LAND
It seemed to me that father and mother spent a great
deal of unnecessary time in discussing whether they
would change their home from Mississippi to Texas.
In fact I was beginning to despair of ever becoming
a sheep raiser in the Peters colony, when father sud-
denly declared that he would go to see the country for
himself, and if it was half as good as people said it was,
he would lay out his claim of six hundred and forty
22
PHILIP OF TEXAS
acres and come back to sell the plantation and move
the live stock.
I begged hard to be allowed to go with him, but my
request was not to be granted, for although we owned
two slaves, John and Zeba, neither of them could be
trusted to look after the cattle, the sheep, and the mules.
Therefore it was decided that I should be the head of
the family while father was away, and so proud was I
over being given such a position of trust, that I failed
to grieve, as I otherwise might have done, at not being
allowed to go with him.
He set out with a pair of our best mules hitched to
a light wagon, intending to drive to Little Rock in
Arkansas, and from there to Fort Towson, after which
OUR PLANTATION IN MISSISSIPPI 23
he would make his way across what is now Grayson
County, spying out the land.
OUR PLANTATION IN MISSISSIPPI
It was not a very long journey, although he would
probably travel two or three hundred miles before
turning back. We lived in Bolivar County, in Missis-
sippi, near Indian Point, where, as you know, the Ar-
kansas River joins with the Mississippi.
Our plantation was not well suited to cotton raising,
and perhaps for this reason father was all the more
willing to listen to those people who had so much to
say about Texas, that one could almost believe it to be
a veritable Promised Land. Father had set out to
raise cattle, although our plantation was no better
adapted for such a purpose, perhaps, than it was for
cotton raising. We had about seventy head of oxen,
and twenty mules, together with the seventy-two sheep
which made up my own and my father's flocks. I did
not realize that the profits from sheep raising in Texas
might not be the same as in Mississippi.
I counted the days while father was away, thinking
with each sunrise that I would see him again before
nightfall. After he had been gone two or three weeks
I was foolish enough to wander up the road now and
then, hoping to meet him on his return, and be the first
to hear the good news.
24 PHILIP OF TEXAS
FATHER COMES HOME
He had been absent nearly six weeks, and my heart
had almost grown sick with waiting, when late one
night, after I had gone to bed, I heard a commotion
downstairs, followed by shouts for John or Zeba, and
then I recognized my father's voice.
There is little need for me to say that I tumbled,
rather than ran, down the stairs, so great was my eager-
ness to learn the result of his visit into Texas, and even
before he had had time to take me in his arms I in-
sisted on knowing whether he had staked out his claim.
In a few words he quieted my impatience by telling
me we would set off for the new country as soon as the
necessary arrangements could be made. So far as the
details were concerned I was willing to wait, for the
matter had been settled as I hoped it would be.
Later, I learned that our new home was to be on the
West Fork of the Trinity River, where, so father said,
the land was better suited for cattle or sheep raising
than any other he had ever seen.
As a matter of fact he was even more delighted with
the prospect of going to Texas than I was, and at once
mother fell in with the plan heartily. She knew he
would not have been so pleased at taking up a claim,
unless it seemed certain we could better our position
very greatly, for he was a home-loving man, and would
THE BIGNESS OF TEXAS
not have moved from our plantation had he not felt
reasonably sure of making a change for the better.
He told us that people from the United States, and
even from across the sea in France, were going in
great numbers to Texas, and he had no doubt but that
as soon as it was made one of the states of the Union,
it would prosper beyond any land of which we had
ever heard.
THE BIGNESS OF TEXAS
Then he began to tell us how large the republic of
Texas was, and before he had finished I was rilled with
astonishment, for, without having given any great
26 PHILIP OF TEXAS
thought to the matter, I had fancied it might, per-
haps, be somewhere near the size of our state of
Mississippi.
He told us that Texas was much larger than the
countries of Sweden and Norway together, three times
the size of Great Britain and Ireland, and nearly twice
as large as France. He also said that the area of all
the New England and Middle States was considerably
less than that of Texas.
Imagine such an extent of territory open to new
settlers! A republic nearly eight times as large as the
state of New York, nine times as large as the state
of Ohio, and six times as large as all New England
put together!
There was no longer any surprise in my mind that
the people who made up the government of Texas would
be willing to give six hundred and forty acres to every
man with a family who would settle there, when,
within their boundaries, they had more than two
hundred million acres.
WHERE WE WERE GOING
Talk of sheep raising, and giving two acres to each
sheep! If, before father went away, I had been eager
to own a sheep ranch in Texas, then certainly I was
nearly wild with the idea after he returned, for from
his stories I began to understand that one could own
WHERE WE WERE GOING 27
thousands upon thousands, and yet find ample room
to feed them all.
We were not going, so it seemed, into the best por-
tion of the republic for sheep raising, but rather into
the northern part, while the finest grazing lands were
on the western side, or in that oddly shaped piece which
is called the " Panhandle."
However, I was well satisfied if we could not have
the best of the sheep- raising business, if only we might
embark in it anywhere.
Again I was contented because we were going into
the northern part, rather than to the westward, owing
to the stories father told of an enormous colony of
Frenchmen which was being brought over the sea by
a gentleman whose name was Castro. Mr. Henry
Castro was a very wealthy Frenchman, who had been
appointed by the Texan government as Consul General
to France. Having been given a grant of land by the
government, he agreed to bring over a large number of
people from his native country, paying all their ex-
penses of traveling, and lending each man sufficient
money to set himself up as a ranchman. Already, it
was said, he had seven hundred people on seven
different ships which he had hired at his own cost,
and these colonists would soon be set down in Texas
to make their way as best they might with his
assistance.
28
PHILIP OF TEXAS
WHAT I HOPED TO DO
I was only twelve years old, and already owned twelve
ewes. Now I well knew from what I had heard sheep
raisers say, that if I attended to my little flock properly,
and if they met with no accident, it would be nothing
marvelous if, at the end of nine years, when I should
be twenty-one, my flock had increased to five thou-
sand, or even more.
Father had hardly finished telling mother and me of
what he had seen during his journey, before we began
to make preparations for moving. Surely it seemed to
CATTLE DRIVING 29
me we were likely to have good luck, for within eight
and forty hours after he returned, a man came up from
Baton Rouge to buy our plantation, having heard that
father was suffering with the Texas fever. Within
two hours after he showed his willingness to buy our
land the bargain was made, a fairly large portion of the
money paid over, and mother and I knew that within
twenty days we should leave the home where I was
born.
CATTLE DRIVING
Perhaps my heart grew just a bit faint when I learned
that it would be necessary to drive all our cattle and
sheep from Bolivar County into Texas, and that I was
expected to do a large share of the work. Father
thought that John, Zeba, and I should be able to keep
the cattle on the road, for we were to follow the highway
the entire distance, and he intended to hire three slaves
/
from our neighbors to drive the mules which would
haul all our household belongings.
There was no question in my mind but that we would
get along easily with the oxen and the cows. Father
decided to harness most of the mules to three wagons, so
they could be handled by the hired negroes ; but the
question of how we would be able to get the sheep along
worried me much. Whoever has had charge of such
animals knows well that it is not a simple task to drive
them over a strange country, however quiet they may
PHILIP OF TEXAS
have been on feeding grounds with which they are
acquainted.
But no good could come from my worrying as to
how we might get into Texas. I would soon know by
experience. In fact, I had little time to concern my-
self about anything whatsoever save the work on hand,
because in order to be ready to leave the plantation
within twenty days, all of us found plenty with which
to occupy our hands.
It really seemed to me as if Gyp knew exactly what
we were planning to do, for he walked around at my
heels day after day, with his tail hanging between his
legs, as though ashamed that he was about to leave
the United States for a new country, where he would
see a flag which bore but a single star.
HOW WE SET OUT 31
HOW WE SET OUT
There was so much bustle and confusion on the plan-
tation during the short time left to us that I hardly re-
member how we made ready ; but I do know that we
were finally prepared for the journey, and that John
and Zeba set off with the cattle twenty-four hours
before father, mother, and I left home, in order that the
creatures might become somewhat accustomed to trav-
eling by the time we overtook them.
We had three wagons covered with heavy cloth,
each drawn by six mules, and loaded with all our
provisions, clothing, and such farming tools as we
wanted to take with us.
The other two mules were harnessed to the wagon
in which father had made the journey to Texas, and
in this mother was to travel, father riding with her
when he was not needed elsewhere.
My mother was a good horsewoman, and the hand-
ling of two, or even four, mules would not have troubled
her in the slightest. Therefore she said to me laugh-
ingly when Gyp and I had gathered the sheep into
one corner of the stable yard, ready to set off just be-
hind the mule teams, that her part of the journey would
be much like a pleasure trip, while to my share must
come a goodly portion of dust and toil.
Father had hired from one of the neighbors three of
PHILIP OF TEXAS 3
32
PHILIP OF TEXAS
his best negroes, who were to drive the mule teams, and
who could be trusted to come back alone from Texas
as soon as their work had been finished.
So it was that we had in our party two grown white
people, one boy, five negroes, and Gyp. I am counting
the dog as a member of the company, for before we
arrived at the West Fork of the Trinity River he
showed himself to be of quite as much importance,
and of even more service, than either the white or
the colored men.
A LABORIOUS JOURNEY
John and Zeba managed to get along with the cattle
very well ; but the drivers of the mule teams were not
A LABORIOUS JOURNEY 33
so skillful in handling the animals as father had ex-
pected, and the result was that he found it necessary
to take the place of one or the other nearly all the time,
thus leaving mother alone.
Sometimes I led the procession; at other times I
trudged on in the rear where the dust was thickest,
running first on one side of the road and then on
the other, to keep the sheep from straying, and suc-
ceeded in holding them to the true course only by
the aid of my dog, who had more sound common
sense in that shaggy body of his than the brightest lad
I have ever come across. Gyp was a willing worker,
and a cheery companion at all times. He would run
here and there regardless of the heat, and when the
sheep were partly straightened up as they should be,
come back panting, his red tongue lolling out, and look-
ing up at me with a world of love in his big brown eyes,
as if to ask why I was so solemn, or why I could not
find, as he did, some sport in thus driving a flock of
silly sheep to Texas.
During the journey we halted wherever night over-
.
took us, sometimes camping in the open and finding
our beds in one of the wagons, or again herding our
cattle in the stable yard of a tavern.
As for food, we got it as best we could. When
fortune favored us and we came upon a tavern, we had
enough to satisfy our hunger, and in very many places
34
PHILIP OF TEXAS
as good as we could have had at the old home in
Bolivar County. At other times we ate from the
store of provisions we carried, cooking the food by
the roadside, while the sheep and the cattle, too tired
to stray very far after so many miles of plodding,
fed eagerly on whatever grass they were lucky enough
to find.
%
Gyp was my bedfellow, whether I slept in one of the
wagons or at a tavern, and before we had crossed the
Red River I found myself treating him as I would
have treated a lad of my own age, and time and time
again I thought to myself that he understood all I said
to him.
KICKAPOO INDIANS
35
KICKAPOO INDIANS
Before we left the old home I firmly believed we would
meet with strange adventures on our long journey,
and each morning when we set out, I driving the sheep,
with Gyp running to and fro to make certain my work
was done properly, I felt convinced that before night
came something out of the ordinary would take place.
Yet until we came near to Fort Towson I saw nothing
more strange or entertaining than I might have seen
on the banks of the Mississippi River, but when we
36 PHILIP OF TEXAS
were within two miles or more of the fort, and the
sheep and I were leading the way, we suddenly came
upon a band of seven Kickapoo Indians, the first of
the tribe I had ever seen. They were all mounted,
no one of them wearing more clothing than the breech-
cloth around his waist, and at least two of them armed
with what I believed to be serviceable rifles.
It was as if the fellows had come up out of the very
ground, so suddenly did they appear. Although I
could not have understood their language if any attempt
had been made to open a conversation, it was plain
to me that they intended to take possession of my sheep
as well as of those belonging to father, while I did not
doubt but that they would make quick work of me.
FATHER COMES TO MY RESCUE
It is more than likely that all my fears might have
been realized had the remainder of our party been very
far in the rear, for I believe the savages thought I was
alone on the road, driving the flock to Fort Towson
where it could be slaughtered ; but at the very moment
when two of the most villainous of the party dismounted
and came toward me with their rifles in hand, father
and mother drove up in the two-mule team.
Immediately the savages drew back until they had
regained their horses, which were being held mean-
while by the other members of the party.
FATHER COMES TO MY RESCUE
37
Father was out of the wagon in a twinkling, with
a pistol in each hand and coming rapidly toward me,
shouting for those in the rear to hurry on, as if he had
a large company at his back.
The Indians did not wait to learn how strong we were
in numbers, and more than likely they saw the cloud
of dust in the distance which told of the coming of the
cattle and the loaded wagons; perhaps they believed
it was raised by a troop of men, for without parley, and
before one could have counted ten, they had wheeled
38 PHILIP OF TEXAS
about and were riding at their best pace in the opposite
direction.
So great was my relief of mind that I felt inclined to
make light of the adventure, but was straightway
sobered when father said gravely : -
" There is much to be feared from those rascally
Kickapoos. The only reason I have not already
cautioned you often and very strongly is because I
feared to alarm your mother. Do not take any chances
if, when you are alone, you come upon such as those
who have just fled, but seek safety in flight if possible.
If you cannot escape, make ready for a desperate de-
fense, and even when you are on our claim, have your
weapons always ready for use."
So intent had I been in planning what might be done
in raising sheep, that the possibility of having trouble
with the Indians never came into my mind ; but now
that father had spoken as he did, I knew that beyond
a doubt there was good reason for caution, if not for
alarm.
Straightway my thoughts went out into the future,
as I asked myself how it would be possible, while
herding sheep, to defend myself, for I well understood
that only Gyp and I could be spared to play the part
of shepherds. All the others would be attending to
the regular work of the ranch, and could not be ex-
pected to give heed to me.
THE ARRIVAL AT FORT TOWSON
THE ARRIVAL AT FORT TOWSON
39
I was still turning this unpleasant prospect over
in my mind when we arrived at Fort Towson, and then
I began to believe the country of Texas was not all
I had fancied. It was only reasonable for a lad like
me to expect that at this fort I would find some-
thing which resembled a fortification, and yet, so far
as could be judged from the outside, it was no more
than the ordinary buildings of a ranchman. To be
sure they were arranged in the form of a rectangle ;
but their arrangement did not present a fortlike appear-
ance to my mind. If there had been some sort of
wall surrounding them, or even connecting them, one
40 PHILIP OF TEXAS
to another, my imagination would have been better
satisfied.
Most of the buildings were two stories high; the
first story built of stone and the second of logs. The
roofs were covered by shingles made of " split' boards.
As was to be expected, most of the doors and windows
faced toward the inside of the fort ; however, much
to my surprise, several opened outward.
The garrison of this ranchlike fort consisted of two
companies of troops. Several Mexicans, all wearing
the same gaudy costumes that may be seen in every
Spanish settlement, were loitering around the place.
I saw also, in front of one of the buildings, some In-
dians dressed in garments of fringed buckskin ; but
after my exciting adventure of the morning, I was
inclined to be suspicious of any savages, whether
Kickapoos or not. Wondering that their presence
could be tolerated around Fort Towson, I asked a
soldier about the Indians and was informed by him
that they were Delawares who were well advanced
in the ways of civilization and who proved of great
value to the garrison as scouts and interpreters.
PREPARING FOR A STORM
It was yet early in the afternoon when we came to
this halting place. We had no reason to complain of
our reception, for the man who appeared to be the
PREPARING FOR A STORM
leader came out even before we were ready to enter
any of the buildings and said, while John and Zeba
were driving the cattle to what seemed good pasturage,
that it would be better for us if we herded the stock
inside the fort.
This caused me some surprise, for I could see no rea-
son why the cattle should not be pastured outside as
long as they were near the fort. I fancy that father,
also, was astonished at the man's advice.
Seeing that we hesitated to follow his suggestion,
the leader pointed to the dark and threatening clouds
that were rolling up in the sky.
It's going to be a bad storm," he said. "Your
UT4-',
42 PHILIP OF TEXAS
cattle may be stampeded when the wind comes unless
you have them corralled, and there is not time for you
to get the wagons in position.'1
Since early morning the air had been so calm that
a feather would not have blown from a tree top, and
the weather had been warm and sultry, so the cool-
ness that would result from a hard thunderstorm would
be most agreeable. I noticed that father ran to give
orders for John and Zeba to turn the cattle into the
fort, and as he went he shouted for me to herd the
sheep there also.
The man who had bidden us welcome aided me in
the task, and more than that, for when the sheep were
snugly inside, he ran back to tell the drivers of the
wagons to get their mules unhooked and in a safe
place before the storm came.
THE STORM
We had hardly more than finished before the dis-
tant roaring of thunder could be heard and in a short
time the wind and rain were upon us.
I followed the Mexicans, who were hurrying into
one of the buildings, and I noticed, as I went at
full speed, that the mules and the cattle had turned
tail to the storm of wind and stood with lowered
/
heads.
It was while I stood there striving to dry my wet
THE STORM
43
clothes before a small blaze, that the leader of the
company came into the room. Joining me at the
fireplace, he began to question me about our purpose
in migrating into Texas. When he learned that my
hopes were set on raising sheep, he told me many
things about that part of the republic to which we
were bound.
He told me that, had we been going farther west
into Texas toward the plains, we might have expected
to encounter the terrible storms, called "northers."
As I had never heard of them, he gave me the following
account.
44 PHILIP OF TEXAS
TWO KINDS OF " NORTHERS '
The Texans divide the storms into what they call
a dry, and a wet, norther.
The dry "norther" often comes after a suffocatingly
hot day on the open prairies ; the first indications of
the approaching storm are low-hanging, sluggish
clouds drifting slowly here and there, in the west or
the northwest. In a short time, with a roar not unlike
thunder, an icy-cold wind springs up with all the vio-
lence of a hurricane. The cold is intense and often
causes a drop in temperature of from thirty degrees
to seventy degrees within a few hours. There is no
rain ; but a sort of mist hangs in the air, which soon
gives way to a blue haze having an odor like the smoke
from burning straw.
These dry northers may continue fiercely for from
twenty-four to forty-eight hours, then gradually die
away in from twelve to eighteen hours, during all of
which time the penetrating cold continues. After this
the wind subsides and the air becomes balmy again.
Wet northers are those which bring rain or sleet,
and usually last twelve or fourteen hours without doing
any particular damage, ending with a mild north or
northwest wind. But the stock is likely to suffer from
the storms, because of being wet with the sleet or rain,
and then thoroughly chilled by that ice-cold wind.
TWO KINDS OF " NORTHERS '
45
After the leader had finished his description, I ven-
tured out long enough to make certain that my mother
was comfortable. She had taken refuge in another
building where were two women, both Mexicans, who
appeared to be servants. With these my mother
remained and dried her garments over a low pan of
coals, until the rain had sub-
sided and the air had cleared.
I, however, spent the
V
greater part of the time in the building where I first
found shelter. The hours were not wasted, for I had
a strong desire ft) learn all I could about the country
in which we were to make our new home.
46
PHILIP OF TEXAS
HOW TURKEYS KILL RATTLESNAKES
One of the Mexicans was a most talkative kind of per-
son, and seeing that I was a tenderfoot from the cotton
country, who had never before ventured away from
home, undertook to amuse me by telling stories, some
of which I believed to be true, while others appeared
extremely doubtful.
When he made the statement that wild turkeys
killed ra'"lesnakes, I set it down that he was drawing
the long oow for my especial benefit ; but before I had
lived in iexas six months I saw it done, and truly it
was interesting.
DEER AND RATTLESNAKES 47
He said that he had seen, more than once, twelve or
fifteen big gobblers dancing around in a circle, as if
they were fighting. They gave no attention to him
when he crept up quite near to them, and there saw
in the midst of this circle a large rattlesnake, actually
struggling for his life.
The gobblers, one after the other, as if it had all been
arranged beforehand, would spring high into the air and
come down upon the snake, taking care not to get too
near his head, and would strike him with one of their
wings such a blow that the noise could be heard some
distance away. Near by, as if they had no interest in
what was going on, a flock of turkey hens might be
feeding.
As I have said, at that time I set it down as a fable,
but more than once since then I have witnessed almost
exactly such a fight, and never have I failed to see the
rattlesnake killed.
DEER AND RATTLESNAKES
Another way of killing rattlesnakes, which the Mexi-
can told about, was employed by deer, which, as we all
know, will attack a snake whenever they come across
one. He said that whenever a rattlesnake sees a deer
coming, he seems to have a pretty good idea of what is
in store for him, and at once loses courage.
The snake coils himself up tightly, hiding his head
PHILIP OF TEXAS --4
PHILIP OF TEXAS
beneath his body, as if understanding that it is of no
use to struggle, and that he might better submit to
martyrdom.
The deer jumps up into the air, bringing all four feet
together, and comes down with his sharp hoofs upon
the coiled snake, cutting and mangling him until there
is no longer any life in his long body. I have never
seen anything of the kind ; but father says that he has
heard of such killings again and again, and has no doubt
whatsoever as to the truth of the story.
Before the storm cleared away, but when the rain
had so far subsided that one might venture out without
fear of being drowned, a big wagon train came up
MAKING A CORRAL OF WAGONS 49
toward the fort, evidently expecting to pass the night
there. Then for the first time I saw those people who
freight goods from the Missouri River down into Texas
and Mexico form with their wagons what they call a
corral. It was to me something well worth watching,
even though I might have been more comfortable
inside the building.
MAKING A CORRAL OF WAGONS
The train was made up of heavy wagons, each drawn
by four yoke of cattle. When the first came up in
front of the fort, the driver turned his team at an angle
with the trail, bringing the oxen away from the fort and
the rear end of the wagon toward it.
The second wagon was wheeled around within a
short distance of the first, the intention of the team-
sters being to halt the heavy carts in such positions
that when all had arrived a circle would be formed,
within which the cattle could be kept. On that
side nearest the fort a passage between two of the
wagons, five or six feet in width, was left open through
which the oxen could be driven after they had been
unyoked.
As soon as the cattle had been taken to where they
might feed, heavy ropes were stretched across the
opening, so that the four mules which had been
driven by the owners of the train were actually fenced
PHILIP OF TEXAS
in, and there was no need either to hobble or to make
them fast with a picket line, for they could not make
their way out between the wagons.
It was all done in a way which showed that these
people had been accustomed to making camp quickly
so that they would
have a place where
they might corral the
stock, and stand some chance of defending themselves
against Indians.
It was this precaution on the part of the teamsters
which gave me yet more reason than I had on meeting
the Kickapoos to understand that in this country
ON THE TRAIL ONCE MORE 51
there were many chances that we might be called upon
to battle for our lives.
One of the drivers told me that, on the march, when
a norther springs up, they always make a corral in this
fashion, forming it sufficiently large to herd all the
cattle within the circle. If they are not sharply looked
after, the animals will take to their heels as if fright-
ened out of their wits. Therefore people who are
accustomed to such sudden changes in the weather
are ever on the lookout lest their cattle be left where
they may not readily be bunched. Oxen will become
wilder through fear of a norther than they can be
made through the shrieking and yelling of Indians who
are trying to stampede them.
ON THE TRAIL ONCE MORE
On the second morning after our arrival at Fort
Towson we set off once more, father and mother lead-
ing the way in the small mule cart, and I following
behind the three wagons, while John and Zeba brought
up the rear with the cattle, which, having had a welcome
rest at the fort, were now traveling at a reasonably
rapid pace, so fast, in fact, that Gyp and I had to urge
the sheep along at their best speed lest we be overrun.
Before the end of the first day's journey, so father
said, we should cross the border line of the republic
and be in Texas.
52 PHILIP OF TEXAS
The way led through uninteresting country, fairly
covered with woodland. About noon, we came upon
quite an extensive clearing, where some settler had
established himself and his family. Father left us
long enough to ride up to the rude little cabin, at some
distance back from the trail. When he returned he
said that this was a cotton plantation owned by some
mixed-blood Choctaws who had settled here a few years
before.
CROSSING THE RED RIVER
They told father that we should soon reach the Red
River, but that we would have no special difficulty
in making the crossing, for there was a small ferry at
the river owned and operated by an Indian.
CROSSING THE RED RIVER 53
Early in the afternoon we came to the river. We
could see the ferry moored to the farther side of the
stream, but there was no Indian anywhere about.
Father called and I shouted ; Zeba astonished us all
by the shrill whistle which he made with his hands.
Even Gyp seemed to appreciate our predicament, for
he ran up and down the river bank barking louder
than he ever did before.
When all this noise failed to arouse the ferryman,
I began to despair of our ever getting across the river
before night came on. Father, however, seemed to
think that we wouldn't be delayed long ; and he gave
directions to John and Zeba for getting the wagons
into the position best suited for approaching the
ferry.
After an hour or so the Indian appeared and be-
gan moving his boat over to our assistance. As it
neared us, it seemed such a small affair that I felt sure
he never could carry our large wagons across. But he
did, and that, too, in a surprisingly short time.
The next morning after we had crossed the Texas
line we came upon the very thing in which I had the
greatest interest, a sheep ranch, and I urged father to
halt there for an hour or more that I might see how
the animals were cared for here in this country, as
compared with our manner of feeding and housing
them in Mississippi.
54 PHILIP OF TEXAS
A TEXAS SHEEP RANCH
Save for the house in which the shepherds live, I saw
very little in the way of buildings for sheltering the
stock. There were immediately around the dwelling
(which, by the way, was made partly of rough stone
and partly of logs of wood) twenty or thirty small
sheep pens, with cribs inside formed of rails loosely
laid together, the whole looking as if some indolent
person had decided to start in the sheep-raising busi-
ness with as little labor as possible.
The only person we could see on the ranch was a man
who acted as cook. Fortunately for me, he appeared
more than willing to answer the many questions I was
eager to ask. In the first place, he told me, as others
had, that the northern part of Texas was not adapted
to sheep raising in comparison with the western, or the
panhandle, section, but that the owners of the ranch
were making a very profitable business out of it just at
that time.
They had four herders for about five thousand sheep.
Each herder had a dog, and with his dog he remained
out on the range month after month, being allowed so
many lambs or sheep every thirty days for his own
food. The two were supplied by the cook with the
other things they might need, such as flour, a bit of
bacon, and salt. The wages paid at that time were only
twenty dollars a month.
THE PROFITS FROM SHEEP RAISING
55
THE PROFITS FROM SHEEP RAISING
The cook had some
marvelous stories to
tell of the money
that might be made
in Texas by sheep
raising, and among
them was this : -
A man for whom
he worked had a
flock of fifteen hun-
dred sheep, which he
let out to a herder on
shares. He gave the
herder one quarter
of the wool, and one
quarter of the increase in lambs ; he also furnished the
salt, the sheep dip, and, of course, the herder's food.
Here are the figures which the cook showed me set
down in a greasy pocket book of his, and which he
declared were absolutely true. The owner received for
the wool, after the herder had taken his share, eight
hundred dollars; the increase in lambs was eight
hundred, which at even a dollar and a half amounted
to twelve hundred dollars. Of this last one fourth
went to the herder, leaving nine hundred dollars for
56 PHILIP OF TEXAS
the increase. Thus the owner of the sheep received as
a net profit from a flock of only fifteen hundred sheep
seventeen hundred dollars, which is almost as well as
he could have done in Mississippi.
Even though I had not been bent on sheep raising be-
fore we entered Texas, that story alone would have been
sufficient to excite my desire to engage in it. It is true
my twelve sheep would make a sorry showing by the
side of fifteen hundred, but yet I was only twelve years
old, and, as I had said to myself again and again,
fortune must go against me exceedingly hard if by the
time I had come to manhood I could not show more
than fifteen hundred, even though the beginning had
been so small.
FATHER'S LAND CLAIM
After seeing that sheep ranch and hearing the stories
told of the money that might be made in the business,
I was more eager than ever to come to that claim which
father had staked out, so I might get my share of the
flock in good condition while we were building our home,
and there was no portion of the journey that seemed
so long and so wearisome to me as the eight and forty
hours after we left the ranch. Then we came to the
location of our new home, and had it not been for that
experience with the Kickapoos, I would have said
that in such a spot a lad might live until he was gray-
headed, with never a desire to leave.
THE CHAPARRAL COCK 57
SPANISH MEASUREMENTS
The claim was located, as I have said, on the West
Fork of the Trinity River, but it must not be supposed
that our land ran any very great distance along the
stream, for the laws of Texas regarding the taking up
of a homestead claim prohibited a man from occupying
on the river bank more than a certain distance, that is
to say, he could have one Spanish vara to each acre
in a survey of three hundred and twenty acres, and
three -fourths of a vara per acre for all other surveys.
You may be certain my father had taken all the land
adjoining the stream which the law allowed him, and
I was well pleased that we had such a large share of
river frontage.
I was wholly ignorant about Spanish measurements
at the time we arrived, but since then I have fixed the
tables in my head fairly well. A vara is a little over
thirty-three inches ; a labor is about one hundred and
seventy-seven acres. Of course we reckoned our boun-
daries in American measurements, but in all our re-
lations with the Mexicans it was necessary to know of
what we were speaking.
THE CHAPARRAL COCK
Father's claim was in a valley where was a large
motte, or grove, of pecan trees. As we came up to the
PHILIP OF TEXAS
place a bird called a chaparral cock looked down on
me with what I fancied was a note of welcome. It
seemed to me a happy omen that the little fellow should
have uttered his cry at the very moment my eyes rested
upon him.
His head was cocked on one side, and his black, beady
eyes twinkled in a most kindly fashion, so that I hailed
him as a friend and
vowed that neither
he nor any of his
family should come
to harm through me
unless it might be
that we were sorely
pressed for food. But
it did not appear
to me probable we
should ever be put
to such straits as that of killing a bird who thus made
us welcome.
Father had already decided upon the location of the
house, which was to be just south of the pecan trees,
which would shelter us from any northern storms. The
three wagons and the two-mule cart were therefore
drawn up side by side at the very spot where he in-
tended to build the dwelling, so that we might use them
for lodgings until we had a better place.
OUR FIRST NIGHT ON THE TRINITY
59
OUR FIRST NIGHT ON THE TRINITY
The live stock were turned out that night to wander
as they would. We had no fear of their straying, for
since leaving Fort Towson all the animals had been
pushed forward at their best pace, and every one was
sufficiently weary to remain near at hand.
Before darkness had come we learned that the little
chaparral cock was not the only neighbor we were to
have in our new home, for there came from the distance
what sounded like screams of pain, and sharp, yelping
barks. The hair stood up on Gyp's back, and he
bared his teeth as if ready for a most desperate strug-
gle, while I took good care to keep him close beside me
60 PHILIP OF TEXAS
as I tumbled into the two-mule cart for my rifle, not
knowing what danger threatened us.
Then father laughed heartily and told me that the
dismal, blood-curdling noises which I heard came from
a pack of coyotes, or wolves, howling, perhaps in ex-
pectation of getting supper. He predicted that we
would soon become accustomed to such disagreeable
noises, for there was little doubt but that these beasts
would remain our neighbors until we could kill them
off, or, at least, make them afraid of venturing near our
clearing.
A large part of the goods was thrown out of the wagons
that we might spread our beds in comfort, for it was
expected that we should live under the canvas cover-
ings until we had built our house; the first work nec-
essary was the setting up of some kind of shanty to serve
as a cook room.
That night, however, a fire was built in the open,
and over it mother prepared the evening meal while
father and I milked the cows. With smoking hot corn
bread, fried bacon, bacon fat in which to dip the bread,
and plenty of fresh milk, we had such a meal as tired
emigrants could fully appreciate.
STANDING GUARD
If I imagined that all of us were to lie down in the
wagons and take our rest on this first night after arriv-
STANDING GUARD
61
ing at the Trinity, I was very much mistaken. Father
made me forget all about sleep and rest, when he said
that unless we kept sharp watch against the coyotes
we were likely to lose several sheep before morning,
and that it was necessary that at least two of us stand
guard throughout the night.
If only the oxen or the mules had been in danger,
perhaps I would not have been so eager to shoulder my
rifle and, in company with Zeba, tramp around and
around the animals until midnight. As it was, how-
ever, I did my duty faithfully, and when the night was
half spent, father came out with John to relieve us.
I was so weary that when I crawled into one of the
wagons on to the soft feather bed, it seemed to me as
62
PHILIP OF TEXAS
if my legs would drop from my body,
and my eyes were so heavy with
slumber that it was only by the great-
est exertion I could keep them open.
When next I was conscious of my surroundings, the
rising sun was sending long yellow shafts of light be-
neath the canvas covering of the wagon ; the little
chaparral cock was calling out from the pecan motte
near at hand, as if to assure me he still stood my friend ;
while far away could be heard the shrieks, yelps, and
barks of the cowardly wolves which had been sneaking
around our flock of sheep all night.
i
A TURKEY BUZZARD
I came out of the wagon with a bound, determined
that from this on until I had my
flock of five thousand sheep, there
should be no dallying on
my part.
As I started toward the
A TURKEY BUZZARD 63
stream for a morning bath, a big black shadow came
between me and the sun. Looking up, I saw for
the first time a turkey buzzard, his black coat and
red crest showing vividly against the sky as he
flapped lazily in front of me to alight in the near
vicinity of the chaparral cock. I was so super-
stitious as to believe for the moment that the
sudden appearance of this disagreeable-looking bird
at the very moment when the little cock was bidding
me good morning, threatened disaster to our scheme
of making a home and to my plan of raising sheep.
With the air fresh and bracing, the sunlight flooding
everything with gold, and even with the dismal shrieks
and yelps in the distance, it would have been a pretty
poor kind of fellow who could have remained long
disheartened, simply because a grumbling old turkey
buzzard chanced to fly in front of him.
The stream by the side of which I hoped to live for
many a long year was not deep at this season, but clear
as crystal, and just cool enough to give me the sensation
of being keenly alive when I plunged in head foremost.
I floundered about until I heard mother calling for me
to hurry while the corn bread was hot, lest I lose my
share, for both she and father were ravenously hungry.
While we ate we decided where the cook camp should
be put up and how we would care for the cattle, the
sheep, and the mules while we were building our house.
PHILIP OF TEXAS — S
64
PHILIP OF TEXAS
In fact, very many plans were laid during those ten or
fifteen minutes, some of which were carried out at once.
PLANS FOR BUILDING A HOUSE
As for the cook shanty, we were not inclined to spend
very much time over it. Simply a shelter from the dew
and the sun, where mother might be screened from the
wind, so she could use the
cookstove we had brought
with us, was all we needed.
Father intended to build a house of lumber, even
though at that time he knew that he would be forced
to pay anywhere from twenty to thirty dollars a thou-
PLANS FOR BUILDING A HOUSE 65
sand feet for cheap boards, and then haul them no less
than two hundred miles.
After he had told me about the lumber I asked in
wonder and surprise if he counted on spending so much
money, when we might build a house as the Mexicans
do, of adobe brick, with no more timber in it than would
serve to hold up a roof of mud. He laughingly replied
that when we had made a saw pit, he would show me
how we might get out our own building material, and
said that I was to have a hand in the manufacture, for
he thought I could do my share of the sawing when I
was not looking after the cattle or the sheep.
Before leaving home he had made arrangements to
keep with us the three negroes whom we had hired in
Bolivar County, until we were fairly settled. Therefore
we had seven pairs of hands in this house building,
which should put the work along in reasonably rapid
fashion, even though five of the laborers were not
skilled.
We spent no more time at breakfast than was neces-
sary for eating and for roughly sketching out the plans
for the day's work. After this each set about his task.
I drove the sheep a short distance away toward the
farther end of the valley, where they could conven-
iently get at the water and yet find rich pasturage;
John and Zeba picketed out the mules; and father
„ »
with the three negroes rounded up the cattle.
66 PHILIP OF TEXAS
THE COOK SHANTY
This done, we set about making a shanty by digging
to the depth of two or three feet a space about three
yards wide and four yards long, around the sides of
which we set branches of pecan trees. We planted
poles at the four corners so that we could use the
wagon covers for walls and roof.
When this rudest kind of rude building was so far
finished that it would screen us from the wind, we set
up the cookstove, and mother began what in Bolivar
County she would have called her regular Saturday's
baking. After this we put on a roof of canvas, pinning
the whole down as best we might with large bushes,
until we had a shed which would serve, but which was
*
most crude looking.
Although there was nothing on which we could pride
ourselves in this first building, it had occupied us nearly
the entire day, and I had no more than an hour in which
to rest my weary limbs before it was necessary to stand
guard over the sheep, lest the wolves carry off the
beginnings of my flock.
It was during this night, when it cost not only great
effort, but real pain, to keep continually on the move
lest I fall asleep, that I decided that at the very first
opportunity I would build a corral. While our flock
was so small, it would not be a very great task to
THE COOK SHANTY
67
build a pen sufficiently large to hold the animals
together, and at the same time shut out the wolves.
There were enough large
bushes, or trees, to provide me
with the necessary material, and I decided upon the
place where I would build a pen, figuring in my mind
how the work could be best done.
Therefore, when father relieved me at midnight, I
had in my mind's eye the first sheep pen put up on the
68
PHILIP OF TEXAS
West Fork of the Trinity, and already in imagination
was on the high road to prosperity.
A STORM OF RAIN
When another morning came, my dreams of what the
future might bring me had become decidedly cloudy,
for the rain was falling, not furiously, as in the case of
a norther or a short-lived tempest, but with a steady
downfall which told of a long spell of disagreeable
weather, and I was not the only member of our party
to come out from the beds in the wagons looking dis-
heartened, and un-
comfortably damp.
At our old home
in Bolivar County
the first sound in
the morning which
usually broke upon
my ear was that
of mother's singing
as she prepared
breakfast. On this
day she was in our
cook house, but
working in silence.
So, forgetting my own discomfort in the fear that
something might have gone wrong with her, I asked
A DAY OF DISCOMFORT 69
why I had not heard her morning song. In reply
she pointed first to the heavens, and then to our
stock of household belongings, which were strewn here
and there where they had been taken from the wagons.
To give her cheer, I tried to laugh, saying there was little
among our goods which would come to harm because
of the rain, and such as might be injured I would
quickly get under cover. She replied in an injured
tone that father had told her there were few rainstorms
in Texas during the year.
A DAY OF DISCOMFORT
I ventured to jest with her, by saying most likely it
had been arranged for our especial benefit, as we were
newcomers in the country and needed to be intro-
duced to all varieties of climate. The light words
failed to bring a smile to her lips. So, without loss of
time, I set about carrying such of our belongings as
might be injured by the rain to the shelter of the
wagons, and had hardly more than begun the task
when father returned, his face quite as gloomy as
mother's.
He tried to apologize for this sort of weather, and
began by saying that from all he had learned during
his first visit there was little danger that we should be
visited by a very long storm.
Even the negroes were out of humor, and although
PHILIP OF TEXAS
the morning was not cold, all were shivering, and looked
as if they had been taking a bath in the stream. I
asked Zeba what had happened. In sulky tones he
told me that while he had been rounding up the cattle
and bunching them at the upper end of the valley, so
1-4
/-A ',-'• PWVW/V<17< 'Y'/
; • (//////TT,
that they would
not stray too far
on the prairie, he
had been treated to a
veritable shower bath from the moisture on the
bushes and the pecan trees.
THINKING OF THE OLD HOME
The chaparral cock was silent. Even the turkey
buzzard had forsaken the pecan motte. The mules,
THINKING OF THE OLD HOME 71
which I could see in the distance, were hanging their
long ears dejectedly, and the cattle in a most forlorn
manner stood humped up with their heads away from
the wind. Only the sheep grazed with seeming con-
tentment.
When I went into the cook camp, in order to get my
breakfast, I was thinking of the old plantation in
Bolivar County, where, when it rained, we had good
shelter instead of being homeless in the wilderness,
as one might say.
And surely we were in a wilderness, there on the
banks of the Trinity, exposed to all the downpour, save
72 PHILIP OF TEXAS
when we crawled into one of the wagons to shelter our-
selves while mother continued her work. There is no
need that I should say the breakfast was inviting, for my
mother could cook the meanest of food in such a man-
ner that it would appeal to one's appetite, yet we ate
as if it were a duty rather than a pleasure to break our
fast after so much watching.
When the meal was ended, father set the negroes to
gathering up the remainder of our goods that might
be injured by dampness, and I, rather than remain
idle when there was so much work to be done, took
part in the task, until we had nearly everything
sheltered.
The only places of refuge against the storm were the
miserable shanty we had put up so hastily and the small
two-mule wagon in which father and mother had ridden.
We were a mournful-looking company of emigrants,
when, the last of the goods having been stowed away,
we sat under one of the wagon bodies, while mother
continued to work in the shanty regardless of the rain
which came in through a hundred crevices.
WAITING FOR THE SUN
The negroes gathered about father and me, in order
to take advantage of the shelter afforded by the wagon.
We remained silent a full ten minutes before father
strove to cheer our spirits by suggesting that a storm
WAITING FOR THE SUN
73
at this season of the year could not last very many
hours, and that by the following morning we should
be rejoicing in the heat and the brightness of the sun.
He was at fault in this prediction, however. During
the remainder of the day we came out from the shelter
now and then to make certain that the cattle, the mules,
and the sheep yet remained within the valley, and then
crept back once more to keep mournful silence, seldom
breaking it, save when the meals were ready.
The rain continued to fall steadily, and yet it was
necessary we stand guard against the coyotes, who
began to howl, and scream, and bark as soon as night
came. No longer dreaming of making my fortune at
sheep raising, I went off with Zeba just before darkness
74 PHILIP OF TEXAS
covered the earth, to begin the weary march around
and around our herd of cattle and flock of sheep. I was
soon drenched to the skin, and wished that father had
never been attacked by the Texas fever.
I wondered during that long, wet, disagreeable time
of watching where the other newly arrived settlers
had begun to make homes in Texas. I knew that hun-
dreds of families near us in Bolivar County, and from
Kentucky and Missouri, had come into this republic
of Texas, and it seemed, as I thought it over, most sin-
gular that we had failed to meet with any of them.
The storm, the darkness, and the irritating calls of
the coyotes had so worked upon my mind that I came
to believe that all the stories we had heard of people
who were to make homes in this new country had been
false. It seemed to me that we were the only per-
sons in the United States who had been so foolish as
to venture across the Red River with wild dreams of
fertile ranches and rapidly increasing herds of cattle
or flocks of sheep.
TOO MUCH WATER
Three days passed before we again rejoiced in the
light of the sun. During that time so much discomfort
and actual danger had been met that I was sick at
heart at the very sound of the name of Texas.
Before the end of the second day we had succeeded
TOO MUCH WATER
75
in making the cook shanty nearly waterproof, by strip-
ping all the wagons of their covers, and pinning the
canvas down over the pecan branches. This left our
goods exposed to the rain, and many of our belong-
ings were necessarily ruined, although we took little
heed of that fact,
if only it was pos-
sible to give mother
some degree of com-
fort.
On the morning
of the third day the
valley was dotted
here and there with
pools of water,
showing that the
soil had drunk its
fill and refused to
take in more. In
order to move about in the valley, it was necessary
at times to wade ankle-deep. The result was that
father and I, as well as the negroes, were forced to
wear garments saturated with water, since it would
have been useless to put on dry clothes, for after
an hour of tramping to and fro they wrould have been
in the same wet condition. Yet we had no thought
of real danger. There was in our minds simply the
PHILIP OF TEXAS
painful idea that we must endure what could not be
avoided ; we never dreamed that worse was to come.
THE STREAM RISING
Just before time for dinner on the third day I noticed
that the sheep were making their way rapidly up out
of the valley, and, fearing lest they might stray so far
that it would be impossible to herd them before night-
fall, I followed, leaving father and the negroes crouch-
ing under one of the wagon bodies.
To my surprise, when I had walked a few yards from
TRYING TO SAVE THE STOCK 77
where we were encamped, I found the water in many
of the pools nearly ankle-deep, and saw that the western
side of the valley, that part farthest from the stream,
was literally flooded.
Strange as it may seem, neither father nor I had
given any particular heed to the rising of the stream.
There was in our minds, dimly perhaps, an idea that
the amount of water had increased during this long
storm, and we were not disquieted on seeing it come
up to the height of the banks ; but now, being warned
by the depth of water in the valley, I quite forgot the
sheep for an instant, and ran back to where I could
have a full view of the river.
The flood was already overlapping the banks at the
northern end of the valley, a fact which accounted for
the quantity of water I had found while going toward
the sheep, and I fancied it was possible to hear, far
away in the distance, a roaring noise such as a water-
fall might produce.
TRYING TO SAVE THE STOCK
Heedless of the fact that my twelve sheep were
stampeded, I ran swiftly along the edge of the stream
toward the wagons, shouting wildly that a flood was
upon us. I was yet twenty or thirty yards distant
when father came out to learn why I was raising such
an alarm.
PHILIP OF TEXAS
It needed but one glance for him to understand that
we were in the gravest danger. Even while I ran, it
Was possible for me to see the river rising, rising, until
what, at the moment I set off to herd the sheep, had
been comparatively dry land, was being flooded so
rapidly that before I had gained the wagons, they were
standing a full inch deep in the water.
Father ran hurriedly, with a look of alarm on his
face, toward the cook shanty and shouted for mother
to make all haste, to leave everything behind her, and
to clamber into one of the wagons. Then, turning to
the negroes, he literally drove them out from their
shelter, ordering them to round up the mules without
THE ANIMALS STAMPEDED 79
delay so we might hitch them to the wagons. It
not necessary that I should be told to obey tldi copi
mand on the instant, even though it was not directed
to me. I wheeled about, intend1' <: to turn , .miles
in the direction of the *wgons, - -*e slaves to
bring up the harness," but' while dor ao, I saw that we
were too late iy ;vt it- or four minutes, for the
mules h^ ready taken alarm by the rising of the
w?<- Udng their way at a quick pace up the
incli & ied to the higher land, following directly
ie sheep.
THE ANIMALS STAMPEDED
:obably, if I had moved more cautiously, I might
e circled around them, and thus checked their
t until the negroes could come up ; but I was so
oughly alarmed by the rapid rise of the water
the ominous roaring in the distance, that I set
-.it full speed directly toward the animals, and in a
iikling they broke into a gallop, stampeding the
ep by plunging among them.
\.s if this was not sufficient disaster, the cattle, which
d been feeding fully a mile farther down the valley,
w wheeled suddenly about in alarm, and set off
/er the ridge, bellowing with fear, their tails swing-
ig high in the air.
So unreasoning was I in the sudden fright which
PHILIP OF TEXAS — 6
8o
PHILIP OF TEXAS
had come upon me, that I failed to realize it would,
~less to pursue any of our live stock, until father
'-d for me to turn back without loss of time.
His even though he was no more than two
hundred }Tarr -ay. came dimly to my ears because
of the increasing
in the distance, which
sounded more and more
threatening each instant.
'It
- -, -. - xl^»~
When I gathered my wits about me sufficient
obey the command, I saw that he, with the negroes, ^
striving desperately to haul one of the heavy wa^
from the bank of the stream ; but so sodden writh A
was the earth that the wheels sank into the soft su
to the depth of two or three inches, and, struggle
they might, it could not be moved a single pace.
SAVING OUR OWN LIVES
81
SAVING OUR OWN LIVES
1 Gather up the spare clothing, and take your mother
with you ! ' father shouted as I came up to where the
black men were standing dumbly by the side of the
wagon they had so vainly attempted to haul. I cried
out dully, grown stupid with fear, asking where I should
go with mother ; but even while speaking, I had suffi-
cient common sense remaining to pull out from among
82 PHILIP OF TEXAS
our belongings as many water-soaked garments as I
could get my hands on.
"Go to the high land !' father shouted, and literally
dragged mother out from her seat in the wagon, where
she had been crouching since the water flooded the
cook camp. She had her wits about her sufficiently
to understand what father would have us do. Calling
on me to follow, she took from my arms a portion of
the burden and set off straight across that increasing
flood of water in the direction taken by the animals.
She realized that they, prompted by instinct, would
lead the way to the highest point of land.
Thus we two, mother and I, abandoned father and
all our belongings, and it surely seemed as if we were
leaving him to a terrible fate. I would have come to
a full stop in order to urge him to follow us, but mother
called out that I should not slacken pace. She said
that he knew better than we what should be done,
and that he would follow without loss of time.
It seemed to me that we had no sooner gained the
top of the bank, and from there the highest point of one
of the prairie hills, when, looking around, I saw father
and the negroes coming at full speed, as if fleeing from
death itself. And this really was the case, as I saw
a few seconds later. I would have run toward the edge
of the valley in the hope of helping them, but mother
held me back.
A RAGING TORRENT
A RAGING TORRENT
The roar of the coming flood was deafening. Father
and the slaves were yet clambering up the side of the
valley when I saw, coming down the channel of the
river, a raging torrent which
bore on its surface trunks of
trees such as would have dealt death to any one who
might have been in their line of advance. On the waters
were fragments of wood, bunches of enormous bushes,
and I fancied now and then the body of an ox ; but it
was all a scene of confusion, of noise, and of menace.
84 PHILIP OF TEXAS
During perhaps ten seconds I felt certain father
would be swept away by the raging stream which was
filling the valley. The torrent swelled until the crest
of the muddy waves swept against Zeba's legs, for he
was the last of that little company struggling to save
his life. Not one moment too soon did father and
the negroes gain the high land. They were hardly in
safety when all our valley was filled with water, and I
knew that beneath the flood was everything we owned
in the world save the live stock.
Father came swiftly on until he stood by mother's
side, clasping both her hands. But he spoke not a word,
and I realized that we had come from Bolivar County
with all our belongings only to have them swept away,
and that we were destitute.
As I saw a huge pecan tree, tossing and rolling on
the brown waves, I asked myself if such a monster
could be thrown about like a straw, what must become
of our wagons in the valley ?
A TIME OF DISASTER
It was much like mockery to see the clouds break-
ing away immediately after all the mischief had been
done. Before we had been upon the high land ten
minutes the clouds gave way here and there, until we
could see a glint of the sun. The rain ceased falling,
and he would have been a poor weather prophet indeed
A TIME OF DISASTER
who could not have foretold that the long storm had
come to an end ; but, as I said bitterly to myself, it had
brought with it the end of all our dreams.
The cattle, mules, and sheep had stampeded. Far
away in the distance I could see that little flock of mine,
and yet farther beyond them, barely to be distinguished'
by the naked eye, were the cattle.
The mules had disappeared entirely, and I, who was
ignorant of a ranchman's work, believed for the moment
that we had seen the last of every head of stock and
that we could never round them up again.
I looked to see father overwhelmed with sorrow, and,
86 PHILIP OF TEXAS
therefore, great was my surprise when I heard him say
cheerily : -
'"It is well that we had this experience early in our
Texan life, else the disaster might have been greater.
Now we know it would be in the highest degree unwise
to build our home in the valley, for if the stream rises
in flood once, it will again, and we might lose our lives.
It will not require any great length of time for us to
make good the damage that has been done."
It almost vexed me that he should speak so lightly
of what seemed to me a disaster which could not be
repaired. When I asked how matters might possibly
be worse, he replied laughingly that we were still alive,
our stock would not stray so far but that we could soon
herd them up, and there were many things in the
wagons which would not be seriously harmed by the
wetting.
To this day I am inclined to believe he put the best
face possible upon the matter, so that mother might
not grieve, and certainly his cheery words helped us all.
What was more to the purpose, the fact that he set
each one some task to perform prevented us from
dwelling upon the possibilities of the future.
THE FLOOD SUBSIDING
The storm had cleared away like magic ; within half
an hour from the time our valley was flooded and the
THE FLOOD SUBSIDING
rain had ceased falling, the sun was shining brightly.
The waters were no longer rising, and I did not need
father to tell me they must, as a matter of course,
subside quite as quickly as they had come.
Already I fancied that the tide was falling and that the
torrent swept past with less force. I would have stood
idly watching it, but that father insisted I should go
with him and the negroes to a motte of pecans a short
distance away, there to set about putting up a shelter
for mother's comfort.
It was well we were forced to work to the utmost of
our power, and so we did. When night came, mother
at least had a shelter over her head. The black men
88 PHILIP OF TEXAS
and I were content to lie down anywhere beneath the
thick bushes, and there we slept soundly as if no
disaster had overtaken us. There was no need of
standing guard against the wolves, for we no longer
had anything save ourselves to watch over.
When I expressed my fear that the wolves might kill
the greater number of our sheep, father insisted that
there was more than a possibility that all the flock
would be found ; and he promised that if any were
killed during the night, he would make my loss good
from his own share of the flock.
A JACK RABBIT
When I awoke the first rays of the sun were falling
through the leaves of the bushes upon my face. A
jack rabbit, his long ears flapping comically as he
humped across the prairie, stopped when he was. nearly
opposite the motte of pecans to wonder who these
people were, who had come to disturb him. This was
the first object to meet my gaze, and however great
might have been the sorrow in my heart, I could not
have kept from laughing long and loud at the ridiculous
creature.
I soon saw, however, that his clownish appearance
was not to be counted strongly against him, for, startled
by my rising quickly, he darted away with the fleet-
ness of a deer. I question whether, if my rifle had been
A JACK RABBIT
89
at that moment in my hands ready for use, I could have
done more than take aim before he was out of sight
among the bushes.
Then came a cheery good morning, as I interpreted
it, from a chaparral cock, and I fancied it was the same
fellow who had welcomed us to the valley. Following
this friendly morning greeting came the screaming of
a bird which I afterward knew was called a killdeer.
I was wondrously cheered by the sight and sounds of
life around.
PHILIP OF TEXAS
REPAIRING DAMAGES
Then came the work of the day, the first for me
being to build a fire, even though there was nothing to
be cooked. It had been my duty at home in Bolivar
County to per-
form this service,
and unwittingly
I did it then, not
remembering the
fact that all our
provisions were
at the bottom of
that brown flood.
Mother asked, as
she came out
from her poor
shelter, why I
thought it neces-
sary to start a
blaze. I looked
dumbly back at the valley which we had left in such
haste, and to my surprise saw the tops of the wagons
just appearing above the surface of the water, so rapidly
had the torrent subsided. Father said laughingly, as
if it was a matter which amused him exceedingly : -
We will wait for breakfast until we can get a side
'
ROUNDING UP THE LIVE STOCK 91
of bacon from one of the wagons, unless you, Philip,
are inclined to dive beneath the water for one.'3
It was evident we were to have little to eat during
that day if we depended upon rescuing anything
eatable from the flood. So I suddenly determined
that I would not be outdone by father in cheerfulness
•/
and proposed that John go with rne in search of the
cattle.
"I am thinking all of us must take a hand in that
work," father said. Then turning to mother, he
asked if she would be willing to remain there among the
pecan trees alone while we roamed the prairie in search
of the cattle.
It was a useless question, for my mother was a woman
who always stood ready to do that which came to her
hand, regardless of her own pleasure or inclination.
ROUNDING UP THE LIVE STOCK
We set off at once, hungry as we were, on what I
thought would be a useless journey. I was prepared
to tramp all day, if necessary, without getting sight
of a single animal belonging to us, and yet, greatly
to my surprise, an hour before noon we came upon the
entire flock of sheep with never a one missing. They
were feeding as peacefully as if they had been herded
by a better shepherd than I ever claimed to be.
Gyp, who had kept close to my heels from the time the
PHILIP OF TEXAS
waters first came down upon us, now seemed to recover
his spirits. For the first time since we had been forced
to flee for our lives he gave vent to a series of joyful
barks, running around and around the flock as if he
had been ordered to do so.
Father proposed that Gyp and I return with the
flock to where mother was waiting, while he and the
negroes continued
in search of the
cattle and mules.
Against this I was
not inclined to
make any protest,
for it had worried
me not a little be-
cause she was alone,
although I failed to
understand how
any harm could
come to her.
When the after-
noon was about half
spent, the negroes that father had hired as mule drivers
came in with all our herd of oxen and cows. They re-
ported that father, with John and Zeba, had kept on,
having seen the mules far away in the distance, and
•
it was reasonable to suppose they would return to us
THE FIRST MEAL AFTER THE FLOOD
93
before night had set in. This they did not do, however,
and mother and I were troubled because of their absence,
yet we could do nothing but sit there, idly watching the
sheep and gazing down now and then into the valley
to mark the ebb of the waters.
THE FIRST MEAL AFTER THE FLOOD
Half an hour before sunset, when the wagons stood
out plainly in view, with the flood hardly more than up
94 PHILIP OF TEXAS
to their axles, I called upon the negroes to follow me,
and we set out to look among our belongings for some-
thing to eat.
After searching about we came upon a side of bacon,
which looked but little the worse for its long bath, save
that it was coated in a most unpleasant fashion with
mud. Thinking it impossible for us to find any other
thing in condition for eating until after it had been
well dried, we turned to the grove of pecans with our
small prize.
I built a fire near where mother's shelter of branches
and leaves had been set up. Then from the near-by
bushes I cut twigs which would serve as forks to hold
the meat in front of the blaze. After this I carved the
bacon with the knife from my belt, and mother broiled
slice after slice, the savory odor causing me to realize
how exceedingly hungry I was.
We ate heartily, almost greedily. When our hunger
had been partly satisfied, we sat down to await the
coming of father, speculating upon his prolonged ab-
sence, until we had imagined that all sorts of evil had
befallen him.
WAITING FOR FATHER
He who crosses a bridge before he comes to it, or, in
other words, the man or the lad who looks into the
future for trouble, proves himself to be foolish, for all
WAITING FOR FATHER
95
the worry of mind one may suffer will not change events
by so much as a hair's breadth.
If mother and I had remained there talking of this
thing or of that which had happened in Bolivar County,
and not looking out across
the prairie with the idea that
harm had befallen father,
then the evening might have
been a pleasant one ; but in-
stead, we were almost dis-
tracted with fear, until about
midnight, when the tramp-
ling of hoofs in the distance
told us that the mules had
been rounded up.
It seemed strange to me,
PHILIP OF TEXAS --7
g6 PHILIP OF TEXAS
when father and the negroes came into camp, bringing
the mules with them, that in the stampede we had not
lost a single animal. Every ox, cow, mule, and sheep
that had been with us in the valley before the flood
was now returned and herded in front of the pecan
motte as peacefully as though nothing had occurred.
But not far away we could hear the snarling, shriek-
ing, and barking of the coyotes which served almost to
make it seem as if that flood had been no more than
a disagreeable dream.
That night the hired negroes and I stood watch.
Father, John, and Zeba had traveled so far afoot,
and were so weary that I could not have the heart
to rouse them when it came time for our relief from
duty, and so we paced around the herds and flock
until daylight.
When the first rays of the sun glinted all the foliage
around us with gold, it was possible for me to look down
into the valley from which we had fled, and get some
slight idea of the misfortune that had overtaken us.
Because of the weight of the wagons, and owing to the
fact that they were heavily laden with farming tools
and such things as would not float, they had hardly
been disturbed. Also, owing, I suppose, in a great
degree, to their being sunk so far in the mud after the
first onrush of the torrent, they had not been knocked
about to anv extent.
RECOVERING OUR GOODS
RECOVERING OUR GOODS
97
As a matter of course everything, including the grass,
was covered with mud ; but the water, except here
and there where it stood in small pools on the surface,
had retreated to its proper place between the banks,
and there was nothing to prevent us from caring for
our goods.
Mother cooked all that was left of the bacon, after
which, with hunger still gnawing at our stomachs, we
went down to set our belongings to rights, and a weari-
some day it was.
98 PHILIP OF TEXAS
The harness of the mules had been swept down-
stream so far that we did not come upon any portion
of it until the day was nearly done. Therefore, we
could not make any effort toward dragging the wagons
to the hard ground, but were forced to carry in our
hands every article which it was necessary to spread
out upon the clean grass to dry.
About nightfall, after having found enough harness
for one team of mules, we succeeded in getting a single
cart up to where mother's camp had been made. Then
it began to look as if we had really taken possession
of this portion of Texas, for all around were spread
clothing, bedding, household furniture, farming tools,
and this thing and that which went to make up the
cargo we had brought from Bolivar County.
The wagon covers which had been spread over our
cook camp had floated down the stream beyond the
possibility of our finding them before another day.
Therefore, that night, my mother slept once more in
her shelter of branches and leaves ; father and I made
a bed for ourselves in the water-soaked wagon; and
the negroes, or such of them as were not on duty
guarding the cattle, lay down on the ground beneath it.
SETTING TO WORK IN GOOD EARNEST
From this on we had plenty with which to occupy
our hands as well as our minds. There was ever the
SETTING TO WORK IN GOOD EARNEST 99
necessity of keeping the cattle rounded up, the sheep
herded, and the mules from straying, and all this was
the more difficult because they were now on the prairie
instead of in the valley.
Father was determined that his first work in this
new country should be the building of a house, and
very shortly after the flood subsided, I understood
MB-wfe,
R3F
what he meant, when he spoke of my taking a hand in
getting out the lumber.
First, as a matter of course, we hauled the other
wagons out of the valley, making a small corral with
them near the pecan motte where we had decided to
ioo PHILIP OF TEXAS
build a home. Then we hunted during a full day along
the banks of the river for such of our belongings as had
been carried away by the flood, and found everything
of value before the search was ended.
Two of the negroes were told off to guard the flock
and the herd, either father or I keeping a sharp eye on
them meanwhile, lest they should neglect their duties.
After the ground plan of our house was staked out,
father blazed such of the trees as he decided must be
felled in order to provide us with lumber.
The negroes were set at work cutting these down,
while father made his preparations for that sawmill
which amused me before it was finished, and caused
my back and arms to ache sorely before it had fully
served its purpose.
SAWING OUT LUMBER
Perhaps you may not be able to understand how we
could convert the trunks of trees into lumber without
a sawmill, nor did I at first ; but, as I have said, I soon
came to have a very clear and painful idea of how it
might be done.
First a deep trench eight or ten feet long, and perhaps
four feet wide, was dug in the prairie near where the
trees had been felled. At either end of this trench,
standing perhaps three feet above the surface, was a
scaffolding of small timbers.
SAWING OUT LUMBER
101
When the first tree was down and had been trimmed
of its branches, all hands were called to raise it up on
these two scaffolds, and there it lay, each end pro-
jecting four or five feet beyond the uprights.
Directly over this, at one end, was a small, movable
platform, as I may call it, constructed of the trees
wilich could not be used for building purposes, and of
such a height that he who stood upon it would be no
less than three feet above the log which lay upon the
scaffolding.
102 PHILIP OF TEXAS
When this was done, father brought out from our
belongings a long saw, such as we of Bolivar County
called a crosscut. It had long teeth which were set up
at wide angles, so that it would make a broad cut
without being in danger of binding between the sides
of the log. This saw was perhaps six feet long, and
provided with a handle at each end projecting out on
both sides of the blade in such a manner that one
could seize it with both his hands.
Then I began to have a very good idea of how
timber might be produced without a mill, for father,
directing me to stand in the pit while he took his
station on the platform above, made the first cut with
the saw. After it had fairly been started in the groove
I was called upon to work at the lower end of it,
alternately pushing and pulling, while father did the
same. Thus the sharp teeth were forced through the
wood, slowly to be sure, but none the less steadily,
and as we cut board after board the log was pushed for-
ward or pulled back on the scaffolding so that we
might not cut into the scaffolds. You may well fancy
that I was ot much pleased at thus being forced to
do my share in getting out material for the house.
LABORING IN THE SAW PIT
Sheep herding is nore loo pleasant a task; but as
compared with this band sawmill of ours it seemed
LABORING IN THE SAW PIT
103
like positive pleasure. I said to myself that I would
never again complain of the hardships of herding a
flock on no matter how large a range, because the
memory of this method of working out lumber would
always remain fresh in my mind.
I was not in the pit very many hours during the day.
One of the negroes
was called to take
my place at inter-
vals ; but we could
not well trust this
work, rough and
arduous though it
was, to the black
men because of their
carelessness. Once,
when we left two of
them alone while
father and I helped
mother with the
family washing at
the bank of the
creek, we found that the stupid fellows, instead of
sawing the board the same thickness all the way
along, had made it thin in one place and thick in
another, until it was practically useless for building
purposes.
IO4
PHILIP OF TEXAS
WILD CATTLE
- Before we had worked out by this slow process all
the lumber that would be necessary for making our
home, we were surprised to find that our herd of cattle
had been increased by three handsome beasts, two cows
-
'/A'!'
and a bull, black as coals, S*1*^" " ~ *JBSB
with glistening, long, white
horns.
•
They suddenly appeared among our herd,
causing me, who first discovered them, the greatest pos-
sible surprise. It seemed almost like some work of
magic that we should have gained these fellows without
raising a hand. Thinking that they might be branded,
i the custom in Texas, I tried to come near enough
find out, but I soon understood that I might as well
have tried to make close ac juaintance with the shiest
antelope that ever cro? the prairie.
These cattle were so wild that at the first sight of
A DISAGREEABLE INTRUDER 105
•
a man they would toss up their horns, bellow, and set
off across the country with their tails raised high as
a signal of danger, putting the very spirit of mischief
into our cattle.
After making two or three vain attempts to come up
with them, I realized that unless I would take the
chances of stampeding our whole herd, I must leave
them alone.
When I told father of the wonderful discovery that
we had grown the richer by three cattle, he treated
the matter very calmly and explained the seeming
mystery by saying that we were not the only persons
who had found additions to their live stock, for during
his first visit to Texas he had heard much concerning
such cattle.
During the years from 1834 to 1836, when the Mexi-
can army was retreating, the Indians ravaged the
country between the Nueces and the Rio Grande to
such extent that the Mexicans, owners and herdsmen,
abandoned their stock ranches, leaving behind them
large herds of cattle which could not be carried away
save at great risk, and these beasts had since then
multiplied rapidly.
A DISAGREEABLE INTRUDER
The officers of the Texan army had been accustomed
to send mounted men into the abandoned country,
io6
PHILIP OF TEXAS
driving out the cattle for the use of the army and thus
supplying the troops with meat at no other expense
than that of searching for it, until there were no longer
large herds to be seen. Now and then, however, as
in our case, a ranchman would suddenly find three
or four, or pos-
sibly a dozen,
among his own
herd.
Father was not
much pleased at
this addition to
his stock, for those
black fellows were
so wild, having
ranged the coun-
try as they willed
during eight or ten
years, that they
played the mis-
chief with the tame cattle, as I had already seen. At
the slightest cause of alarm, they would set off in mad
flight, and thus stampede the quietest herd that was
ever rounded up.
"To-morrow we will shcjt that bull/3 father said,
"if it can be done without making too much trouble
among our own cattle. Then perhaps the cows will
ODD HUNTING 107
quiet down a bit, and find it more agreeable to behave
themselves than to run races across the prairie without
cause.'
Half an hour before daylight next morning father
and I, with plenty of ammunition, set off alone to do
our best at cutting the wild bull out from the herd,
and ending his career with a rifle ball.
We left our camp, without waiting for breakfast,
believing in our ignorance that the hunt would not
be long ; but very shortly after it began we under-
stood that we had more of a task on our hands than had
been anticipated.
To get within rifle shot of the herd seemed for a long
time an impossibility. No sooner would we come in
sight of the animals than up would go their tails and
away across the prairie all the cattle would dash as if
suddenly grown wild.
ODD HUNTING
Then it was necessary to creep up on them, stalking
the huge creatures as carefully as we might have hunted
deer ; but so wild were they that the least incautious
movement when we were creeping through the grass,
wriggling along like snakes, would provoke a snort of
terror, and away the whole herd would go again.
More than once I urged father to turn back, saying
we might drive our own cattle entirely across the re-
io8
PHILIP OF TEXAS
public of Texas, and finally lose them, if we continued
our efforts. I pointed out to him that already we were
at least five or six miles from home and had not had
our breakfast ; but he replied grimly that if we would
save our own stock, it was necessary to put an end
to the career of that black bull, who seemed pos-
sessed by the spirit of mischief, or the tame cattle
might grow so wild it would be impossible to herd
them.
We made our way slowly at times, and again we ran
swiftly if there was no dancer of being seen by the
beasts, for not less than fifteen miles, when we came to
A SUPPLY OF FRESH MEAT 109
a pecan grove in which we hid ourselves, with the idea
of resting from the exertion of the chase.
While we sat there concealed by the foliage, the
very animal we were so eager to kill led the herd directly
toward us. He kept on feeding leisurely twenty or
thirty paces in advance of the others, and sniffing the
air with each mouthful.
Fortunately for us the wind was blowing directly
from him toward the pecan motte, and therefore he
failed to scent any danger.
On he came, slowly at first, as handsome a beast as
I ever saw. When he had ventured thus unsuspiciously
within perhaps half a rifle shot, father whispered to
me that I should take careful aim, either at the bull's
neck or just behind the fore shoulder, and when he
gave the signal, I was to fire.
It seemed to me that the two shots rang out at the
same instant, for they sounded like one, and the black
bull pitched forward on his knees as if struck by
lightning. A second later he had rolled over dead,
and the work was finished, save the walk of fifteen miles
before it would be possible to satisfy our hunger.
A SUPPLY OF FRESH MEAT
We covered the carcass with the branches of the pecan
trees as well as possible, in order to keep the wolves
and the turkey buzzards away, for even though we
no
PHILIP OF TEXAS
had been here but a short time, I had learned that any-
thing eatable left exposed on the prairie, particularly
fresh meat, would soon be devoured by the noisy coyotes
or those unwholesome-looking birds. Then we set
out on our return to the home camp, leaving the cattle
to recover from the fright caiic^ by the report of our
rifles as best they might.
"JERKING' BEEF in
When we arrived, at about three o'clock in the after-
noon, father set one of the negroes to harnessing two
mules to the small wagon, and announced that I was
to go back with a couple of the men to bring in our
game, for we could not well afford to lose so much fresh
meat.
The day had been a long one before I found oppor-
tunity to crawl into my bed, for it was near midnight
when we got back with the carcass of the bull.
When I opened my eyes next morning, I remembered
the saw pit, believing I must spend another day at the
slow task of making boards and joists from green wood,
but father was at work cutting the carcass of the bull
into thin strips, while John and Zeba were building
a little scaffold on the prairie a short distance from
mother's shelter.
" JERKING' BEEF
This was the first process towards "jerking" beef, or,
in other words, drying it in the sun, a method of pre-
serving meat which I fancy has come down to us from
the Indians. Before the morning was spent I dis-
covered that there are more disagreeable tasks than
that of pushing a crosscut saw up and then pulling it
down. »
Before all the meat had been cut into thin ribbons
and hung on the scaffolding, we were covered with blood,
PHILIP OF TEXAS — 8
112
PHILIP OF TEXAS
and on the topmost branches of the pecans sat a dozen
or more of those miserable turkey buzzards, awaiting
an opportunity to come down and eat what was left of
the carcass. It was necessary to keep as close a watch
over those birds as we did over the wolves, else all our
labor would have
been speedily de-
voured. When
there was an op-
portunity for a
much-needed bath,
father allowed no
more than two of
us to go" into the
stream at a time,
obliging the others
to remain where
they might stand
the
guard over
meat.
When night came, the ribbons of flesh were not wholly
cured and we found it necessary to gather them up
and store them in one of the wagons lest the dew spoil
the flesh ; in the morning we hung all the thin strips
out again, standing over them jealously.
It seemed to me just then as if all our days and nights
in Texas were to be spent standing guard over some-
SEARCHING FOR THE CATTLE AGAIN 113
thing. During the night we were forced to watch lest
the wolves devour our sheep, and during the day we
had to keep a careful eye over the turkey buzzards who
seemed on the verge of starvation all the time. In
addition to this labor, it was necessary to perform the
regular work on the ranch, and thus it may be seen
that we did not have much time for idling.
SEARCHING FOR THE CATTLE AGAIN
The next day father sent out two of the negroes to
search for our cattle, believing it would be useless for us
to make any attempt at herding them until after they
had had ample time to quiet down from the alarm
caused by the chase and the killing of the bull.
The black men were absent from the camp twenty
hours before coming back with all the herd, and to have
heard these negroes complain, one might have thought
that they had walked a full hundred miles. According
to their story they traveled a long, long distance before
coming upon the herd, and then they found it ex-
tremely difficult to drive the beasts in toward the
Trinity River, because the two wild cows made every
effort to stampede the herd whenever the negroes
came in sight.
Perhaps I do not need to set down in detail all that
we did during this first season on the Trinity, but I
will tell what we accomplished.
PHILIP OF TEXAS
OUR NEW HOME
First, and next to the raising of sheep, the most im-
portant matter to me was the building of the house.
This we did, working at odd times when not engaged
in planting, and seeing to
it that never an hour
was wasted, either by
ourselves or by the negroes. When the work was
finished, truly we had a building of which to be proud,
for this new home seemed quite as fine as the one we
had left in Bolivar County.
It was built throughout of sawed lumber ; the roof
was made of a double thickness of boards, and the
PLANTING, AND BUILDING CORRALS 115
crevices on the sides of the house covered with the first
strips taken from the trunks of the trees, with the bark
still remaining; but this did not, in my eyes, detract
from the general appearance of the whole.
Perhaps it was because I had labored so hard and
so long on this home of ours, that it appeared so beauti-
ful in my sight. At all events, it was most convenient,
as even mother admitted. We had one room on the
front, overlooking the river, and back of that a store-
room and a kitchen, which, if not exactly fit for a king,
served our purposes very well.
In the loft, which of course was directly under the
roof, we had our beds, mother, father, and I. Just
behind the building, or, I should say, on the other side
of the pecan motte, was a small hut built of round logs
for the two negroes. We had sent back on foot those
men whom father hired to drive the teams ; therefore
when our house was finished and the season at an end,
only John and Zeba remained to aid in the labor of
the ranch.
PLANTING, AND BUILDING CORRALS
We had planted no less than three acres of corn and
potatoes, all of which promised a bountiful harvest,
and gave token of yielding two or three times as much
as we could have hoped for on the richest of the Mis-
sissippi bottoms.
n6
PHILIP OF TEXAS
In addition to the dwellings, we had built a large pen
for the sheep, made of thick bushes stuck so firmly
into the ground that the coyotes would not dare at-
tempt to force a passage through.
We also had smaller pens for the sheep with lambs,
4 ^ perhaps a dozen or more of
them; for, as you know, the
•»- *• .'\ii V«jy ff-(<'*,;'^ / «/ /
r ^( v**$$u mother sheep
^•^v=^- „ fe-f. ,*gf~3k,
*sfc very often
^^, ^Siaja&e^st'v^ /s =-<m 4M 3^. J
vi?.
will not take kindly to her young, and it is necessary
either to tie her up, or put her in some small inclosure
with the little fellow, during two or three days, until
she becomes acquainted with him and is willing to
admit that he belongs to her.
During the season the last work done by the negroes
BAR-O RANCH
117
was the splitting of rails. With these and with the
wagons, we made a corral for the mules, where they
could be inclosed at night, or whenever there was
promise of a storm which might stampede them.
For heavy wind storms came, as it seemed to me, very
often.
BAR-O RANCH
As for the oxen and cows, they were still allowed to
roam over the prairie. W^e could not well provide
them with a corral, because
rattle often feed at mVht l(l//^#/-
\_clL L1C <J1 LCil ICCLI dL IlltrilL, -?*; lilM — >«L/,^'/ •»
-&' ^ • -^ ' • "'7/^4**=.^
and must have plenty of
•*• •' -«- ~^^- -^S?^^ ' JJ . . . r- jf'/J/Ji£:^<i&
- >>^—
_— .— ; . '-^f^^
room in which to roam ; but we took good care that
they were branded, father using as his mark a big
letter O with a line drawn across the middle.
n8 PHILIP OF TEXAS
Because of this brand I decided we would call our
new home the Bar-O Ranch, and to-day I venture to say
it" is as well known in the state of Texas as any other,
even though we may not number our cattle by the
thousands, as do the more wealthy cattle raisers.
During all that season we had but two visitors, and
how they chanced to stray down our way so far off the
trail I was curious to learn. They were Mexicans,
each driving a cart of home manufacture, which was
the oddest contrivance I had ever seen.
AN ODD CART
The wheels are about seven feet high, made of
three pieces of plank perhaps three inches thick, the
middle one being the widest, and the two outsides
quite narrow, the whole being rounded into the shape
of a wheel.
The axle on which it is hung, for the carts are built
somewhat after the fashion of a gig, is nothing more
than a straight stick of timber with the ends rounded
off to fit into holes cut through the center of the wheels.
On this axle, fastened to it by wooden pins and strips
of rawhide, is the body of the cart, formed of timbers
no less than three or four inches square. The tongue,
to which the oxen are yoked, is only a straight piece of
heavy hickory bound to the axle with thongs and pins
in the most awkward manner possible.
AN ODD CART
119
Take it all in all, it is as heavy, as ill-contrived,
and as odd a vehicle as one can imagine. Because of
its exceeding great weight, the Mexicans cannot carry
very heavy loads, and, because there are no hubs to
the wheels and because the owners of the carts use
little or no grease, it is possible at times to hear the
creaking of the huge wheels a mile or more away.
If a Mexican cart is an ill-looking contrivance, then
surely the yoke for the oxen fully matches it, for it is
nothing more than a piece of timber, the edges rounded
somewhat so they may not chafe the animals' necks,
120
PHILIP OF TEXAS
laid directly behind the horns, and lashed there firmly
with thongs of rawhide. It is made fast to the tongue
of the cart in the same awkward manner. It must
cause the beasts much discomfort, and certainly the
strongest oxen are unable to pull half as much of a load
as when a yoke with a smooth bow is properly adjusted
around the necks.
THE VISITORS
These Mexicans, who were driving two oxen to each
cart, claimed to
be going to Fort
Towson after cer-
tain goods which
were to be left
there for them ;
but I doubted the
statements made,
as did father, for
they had their un-
wieldy vehicles
partly rilled with
packages five or six
feet long, wrapped
in what looked like
tow cloth, and we
afterward learned
that these were
ZEBA'S CURIOSITY 121
probably muskets being sent to the northern border
to be sold to the Indians.
These strangers were decked out in most fanciful
costumes, with scarf-like blankets of gaudy colors
thrown over their shoulders, simply by way of orna-
ment. They could speak only a few words of English,
making their wants known mostly by gestures.
They asked if they might make camp near our house.
Such a request was not to be refused, for they might
have done as they pleased. Father would not have
had the heart to drive them away, for the prairie, even
though staked out as a homestead, is free to all travelers.
ZEBA'S CURIOSITY
That evening Zeba's curiosity, like my own, was
aroused by the sight of those bundles in the carts, which
seemed heavy, as could be told when the Mexicans
unyoked the oxen. He therefore loitered around try-
ing to find an opportunity of learning what was inside
the wrappings of tow ; but before he succeeded in get-
ting his hands on one of the packages, the Mexican
drove him away with threats that I fancy would have
been -blood-curdling had we understood the Spanish
language.
Their behavior toward Zeba, who thus far had done
no more than stand idly by the side of one of the carts
looking in, as a negro will when his curiosity is aroused,
122
PHILIP OF TEXAS
caused father to suspect that there was something
.wrong with the men, and that their approaching Fort
Towson by way of the West Fork of the Trinity was
not an accident, but rather done by design, that they
might avoid the beaten lines of travel.
Therefore during the night that they remained in
camp near us, both he and I stood guard, for while we
had not heard very much concerning the troubles with
Mexicans and Indians which the settlers on the western
border wrere having, we knew the people of Mexico
had no good will toward us who came from the States;
although why that should have been the case I have
never succeeded in learning.
SUSPICIOUS BEHAVIOR 123
POSSIBLE TREACHERY
On thinking it over, there appears to be good reason
why the natives should be the enemies of those who
have settled in Texas, for this republic was forcibly
taken from the Mexican government at the cost of
much bloodshed, and it would be strange indeed if
they looked upon us in a friendly manner after that.
Even if they had not had so much territory taken
from them, the Mexicans surely had good reason for
unfriendliness when they remembered the battle of
San Jacinto, to say nothing of the other engage-
ments which gave independence to the republic of
Texas.
Father has always held that when the Comanche
Indians overran Texas in 1840, they were urged on
by the Mexicans, who hoped to get back their territory,
and perhaps believed that the savages would work
such ruin to the republic as to make it easily conquered.
SUSPICIOUS BEHAVIOR
Under pretense of guarding against the coyotes,
and preventing the cattle from straying, father and I
moved here and there in the vicinity of the house dur-
ing the entire night, and I took note that one or the
other of those teamsters was on the alert whenever we
came near them, which fact caused father's suspicions
124
PHILIP OF TEXAS
to increase rather than diminish, and we were thankful
indeed when, at an early hour next morning, they took
their departure.
Five or six weeks later, however, when we had fairly
good proof that they were carrying muskets and,
perhaps, ammunition to the Indians in order that an
attack might be made on us settlers, father regretted
that he had not demanded to know what the fellows
had in their carts.
When I asked him what he would have done if he
had discovered that they were carrying weapons, he
said most emphatically that, knowing the Indians on
GYP'S FIGHT WITH A COUGAR 125
the border were in a state of unrest, he would have
taken it upon himself to stop the fellows at the point
of the rifle, and would have sent me to Fort Towson,
even though I might have been forced to go alone, in
order to learn what disposition should be made of
them.
Mother said that it was fortunate for us that we had
not done any such wild thing, for if the fellows had
resisted our attempts to search their carts, and resorted
to weapons, then we might have come out second best,
for no dependence could be put in John and Zeba in
event of a downright fight, for they were more cowardly
than any other slaves I had ever seen.
GYPJS FIGHT WITH A COUGAR
Gyp and I thoroughly enjoyed ourselves hunting.
He was not a dog trained for game, but he had so much
good sound common sense that immediately after we
had treed and killed our first wildcat, he entered into
the sport as if he had been always accustomed to it.
Gyp was more like a comrade than like a brute.
With the game as abundant as it then was on the West
Fork of the Trinity, you can be assured that he and I,
after the hardest of the work had been done, and when
the sheep were not needing care, had some rare sport.
It was my ambition to kill what is called a Mexican
lion, or cougar. I knew there were several prowling
126
PHILIP OF TEXAS
around, having seen their tracks ; once I came in
full view of one when he was making a dash for a sheep
and a lamb which had strayed some distance from
the flock.
Gyp and I hunted, day in and day out, without suc-
cess, until one morning by accident we almost stumbled
over one of the fellows. In a twinkling the cougar
and the dog were fighting desperately, while I ran
IN A DANGEROUS POSITION 127
around and around them, fearing to shoot lest I should
kill Gyp, but knowing it was necessary to do something
without delay.
The two were rolling and leaping about, each with
his teeth fastened upon the other, as you have seen
two bulldogs fight, but for the life of me I could not
get a fair chance to press the muzzle of my rifle against
the brute's head.
Finding Gyp was getting the worst of the battle,
and forgetting the danger, I whipped out the knife
which always hung at my belt. Holding it between
my teeth and taking advantage of the first opportunity,
I seized that villainous cougar by the neck, and held
him in such a grip that he was half choked and forced
to loosen his hold upon the dog. This gave Gyp the
opportunity he wanted to fasten upon the animal's
throat.
IN A DANGEROUS POSITION
Gyp, however, was not sufficiently strong to win the
battle unaided, and I had all I could do to retain my
hold upon the beast's neck, not daring for a single in-
stant to let go with one hand in order to use the knife.
Consequently there I stood, clutching the back of the
cougar, while Gyp snarled and tore at his throat with-
out doing much execution.
It was just when I said to myself I could not retain
my hold many seconds longer, and the beast might
PHILIP OF TEXAS — 9
128
PHILIP OF TEXAS
turn upon me, once my grip was slackened, that father
came in sight. Then, as you can fancy, the battle
was speedily ended. He picked up my rifle from the
ground where I had dropped
it, and holding the muzzle
against the brute's ear, fired
with such effect that on
the instant the cougar
ceased to struggle.
tli»
But it was not always necessary that some other
should interfere when Gyp and I were waging war
against the beasts that would have done injury to the
flock. We killed so many coyotes before the season
HUNTING WILD HOGS 129
had come to an end that we ceased to think of it as any
very great feat, and save for the fact that we always
took the wolf's hide, made no more of slaying one than
we did of knocking over a jack rabbit.
HUNTING WILD HOGS
Having killed a cougar and scores upon scores of
wolves, it was my desire to come across a drove of
peccaries, as the wild hogs of Texas and Mexico are
called. One day, when Zeba told me he had seen a
drove of fifteen or twenty near the river, I set off with-
out delay, Gyp at my heels, intending to bring back
one or more that we might have a store of salt pork
for the winter. Little did I dream what kind of
animals I was going against !
We set off early in the morning, Gyp and I, and it
seemed as if I had traveled at least seven miles before
I came upon any signs of the wild hogs.
When I knew that a large number were close at hand,
I began stalking them as I would a herd of deer. If I
had known a little more about those vicious animals,
I would have understood that at any show of enmity
on my part I would bring them down upon me.
In fact, this was what I really did, although unwit-
tingly. I supposed that such game, like others, would
take to their heels at the first report of the rifle, and
all I might succeed in getting would be at the first shot.
1 30 PHILIP OF TEXAS
Therefore I stole up toward the herd with the greatest
caution, spending no less than an hour crawling through
the mesquite bushes toward where I heard the little
fellows grunting and squealing as they rooted among
the decaying leaves for food.
No hunter could have asked for a better shot than
I had. With a single ball I killed one of the peccaries,
and wounded two others in such a manner that I had
no doubt but that I could quickly bring them down. I
began to reload the rifle, ordering Gyp to remain at my
heels so he might not unduly alarm the drove. Hardly
had I poured in the powder and rammed it home,
when like a whirlwind all that drove of hogs charged
through the bushes, and in the instant I was fleeing
for my life.
Now it may seem odd that a fellow nearly thirteen
years old should run away from a drove of hogs ; but
let me tell you that these were no ordinary animals,
as my experience taught me. They were about half
the size of a full-grown hog, with very sharp snouts,
wicked-looking tusks protruding from either side of the
mouth, and long, slim legs, which told that they were
fitted for a race.
TREED BY PECCARIES
It is not to be supposed I gave particular heed to
those characteristics while the peccaries were charging
TREED BY PECCARIES
upon me ; it was afterward, when I had an opportunity
of seeing the dead animals at my leisure, that I noted
their size and shape.
When they came at full speed toward me, with
gnashing of teeth and grunts of anger, I said to myself
that I would sooner be confronted by two cougars
than by such a drove, and, realizing on the instant
132
PHILIP OF TEXAS
that there was little chance for me to escape by flight,
I sought refuge in a small pecan tree which stood near
at hand.
A
It was well I moved quickly, for the foremost of the
drove thrust at me viciously with his tusks, tearing
GYP'S OBEDIENCE 133
off the bottom of my moccasin as I climbed up the tree
and strove to take my rifle with me.
In an instant the hair on Gyp's back stood straight
up, and he braced himself as if for a battle. Now de-
spite the fact that I had had no acquaintance with pec-
caries, I understood at a single glance that he would
have little show against their tusks, and therefore I
shouted for him to go home.
The last of the hogs were charging down upon
us when I repeated the order, and it was fortu-
nate indeed for Gyp that he had learned to obey in-
stantly any command I gave, although it was plain to
be seen that he did not do so willingly.
GYP'S OBEDIENCE
Despite my sharp words Gyp stood irresolute half
a minute perhaps, and I thought he was about to spring
upon the foe. I shouted yet more sternly, and the good
dog wheeled about in a manner which told that he
highly disapproved of my forcing him to turn his back
upon an enemy, and trotted away.
The peccaries turned to follow him, whereupon I
broke one of the stoutest branches within my reach and
flung it among the drove as a challenge for them to
turn their attention upon me and to give Gyp an
opportunity to escape.
It seemed to me then that vou need no more than
134
PHILIP OF TEXAS
a tone of defiance to provoke a row with peccaries, for
when the branch hit the leader of the drove, he turned,
with an angry grunt and snort, to face me. Following
his example, the remainder of the drove saw me plainly
as I leaned over in full view.
If, before we left Bolivar County, any one had told
me I would flee for my life before a drove of hogs, and
then allow myself to be held prisoner by them, I would
have laughed heartily, and yet such was the case now.
MY CARELESSNESS 135
The vicious little animals crowded against the trunk
of the tree, leaping up as if hoping to get a hold upon
me, and tearing off huge pieces of the bark in their
efforts.
At first I was not inclined to believe the situation
very serious, and said to myself that it was an oppor-
tunity to lay in as much fresh pork as we could use
during the winter season. I therefore loaded my rifle
leisurely and prepared to slaughter the entire drove.
MY CARELESSNESS
I fired two shots, bringing down a hog with each
bullet. Then, through clumsiness or the difficulty of
holding myself securely upon the small limb of the tree,
the powder horn slipped from my fingers, and in an
instant they had ground it to fragments.
It was useless to blame myself for such a blunder,
and for the moment it did not seem to be very seri-
ous, since I expected that my enemies would soon go
away after learning that it was impossible to get
at me.
I had killed three outright, and wounded two so
severely that they were lying on the ground ; but of
these the remainder of the drove appeared to take no
notice whatsoever. Their only object was to get hold
of me, and before ten minutes had passed I began to
understand that I was not only regularly treed, but
136
PHILIP OF TEXAS
likely to remain a prisoner until they were forced to
leave me in order to seek food.
They leaped, and grunted, and snarled, at the foot
of the tree until, as time wore on, I became absolutely
afraid that, growing exhausted, I might fall among
them and be torn to pieces.
After a time I lost all desire to look at that ring of
sharp tusks protruding from the red mouths which
rose and swayed before me like some unearthly thing
made up of many parts, and was actually grown so
cowardly that I closed my eyes to shut out the
sight.
VICIOUS LITTLE ANIMALS
137
VICIOUS LITTLE ANIMALS
Hour after hour passed, yet those vicious little brutes
at the foot of the tree seemed as excited as when they
first saw me, and I made up my mind that I was in for
many hours of this odd imprisonment, because it was
not reasonable to
suppose the hogs would
Si\ soon grow so hungry
as to leave me free.
But for the fact that
Gyp was a dog who
obeyed my every com-
mand, and had the good sense to understand that
something serious had happened, I might have come
to the end of my days there among the tangled
bushes, murdered by the peccaries I had counted on
for pork.
Fortunately father was about two miles down the
138 PHILIP OF TEXAS
river when he saw Gyp coming toward him apparently
in great fright. At once he understood the situation
to be extremely grave, else the dog would never have
returned home without me. Seizing his rifle, for we
on the banks of the Trinity took good care to go
well armed even while working on the ranch, father
ordered Gyp to lead the way to where he had
left me.
Half an hour before sunset he came so near that it
was possible to hear the angry grunting of the peccaries,
and understood in a twinkling what had happened.
FATHER COMES TO THE RESCUE
His first care was to lift Gyp into a pecan twenty or
thirty yards away from where I was roosting, and
there the dog struggled to hold himself in the crotch of
a limb while father clambered up beside him.
All this while the hogs which were holding me prisoner
gave no heed to the noise made by father and Gyp, but
continued their efforts to reach me by leaping up against
the trunk of the tree until father opened fire, shouting
to me as he sent a bullet among them : -
"Are you safe, lad? Have you been hurt?'
* I am all right ; but I have dropped my powder
horn."
Then father began firing as rapidly as the rifle could
be reloaded. There were seventeen in the drove I
FATHER COMES TO THE RESCUE 139
came upon ; three I had killed and two I had wounded,
leaving twelve very much alive and very active.
Father killed nine before the survivors decided that
the time had come for them to beat a retreat, and when
the last of the three trotted off, grunting and gnashing
his teeth, I literally dropped from my perch in the
pecan, as limp as though I had been ill for some
time.
So far as getting a supply of pork was concerned,
to say nothing of the saving of my life, it was well
father took a hand in the fight, for I, who knew nothing
of the peculiarity of these wild hogs, would have allowed
the meat to spoil.
There is a gland on the back, filled with a certain
disagreeable substance which will make its way through
all the meat of the wild hog unless it is removed within
a short time after the killing. Father's first act, even
before waiting to congratulate me upon my escape,
or to ask how I had happened to fall into such a pre-
dicament, was to remove these glands, and not until
this work had been performed did he give any atten-
tion to me.
We dressed the carcasses and hung up the meat on
the branches of the trees to save it from being devoured
by the wolves; after which, each of us carrying a peccary
on his back, we set out for the long tramp home, I
promising myself sorrowfully that never again would
140
PHILIP OF TEXAS
I go out hog hunting without taking due precautions
against being worsted.
I shall spend no more time telling of the hunting
/•
•f^lpM
iklM!
rfc> J^^* /•^ \™ ^ \^ Y^-i|i\V<.
-•* y' ,J> ^ \-*-> i<Y'
'
- i ^(^^ ^^vv ...^ ;
which Gyp and I did, even though I am strongly
tempted to do so ; for we often had rare sport, both
on the prairie and in the woods, in search of all kinds
of game.
THE INCREASE IN MY FLOCK 141
. .
And there was game in great abundance, if we cared
to go sufficiently far from home. One year after our
arrival, however, there came to the banks of the
Trinity four other families who staked out land and
thus somewhat interfered with the freedom of our sport.
It seemed to me, then, that the country was becoming
too thickly settled, for I had to walk no more than
five miles in order to reach the house of a man who
had been our neighbor in Bolivar County.
THE INCREASE IN MY FLOCK
In the spring of 1844, one year after our coming into
the republic, father decided to give me all his sheep as
payment for the work I had performed on the ranch.
By this time our flock of seventy-two had increased
to a hundred and fourteen, and we had good reason to
hope that it would be doubled in numbers before an-
other season had passed.
I then turned all my attention to herding sheep,
driving them far out over the prairie where the grass
was richest. There, day after day, Gyp and I remained,
with no other covering than the sky above us, save
when we spent our idle time putting up a temporary
shelter here or there where we might be shielded from
the too strong rays of the sun, or from the blasts of the
norther. All the while my flock throve famously.
It seemed to me fortunate, so far as my own enter-
142
PHILIP OF TEXAS
prise was concerned, that the new settlers on the banks
of the Trinity had not brought with them any sheep,
for they did not expect to raise such animals, having
heard that the western part of the state was better
adapted for the purpose.
Therefore I had no fear that the scab would come
among my flock, because we were not in that section
where strange sheep were likely to be driven from one
point to another, and just so that I kept away from
where the cattle were grazing, I had the entire northern
portion of Texas for my own range, with no person to
interfere.
UNREST OF THE INDIANS 143
UNREST OF THE INDIANS
We had heard rumors of an uprising among the In-
dians when we came to Fort Towson, on our way from
Bolivar County. Again, when the new settlers arrived,
they told us that the Comanches were in a state of
unrest. All this promised evil for us who were living
so far from a town or fortification.
We had still further reason to believe that some
trouble might be expected, when those two Mexicans
stopped at our ranch with cartloads of what were un-
questionably rifles. Yet we gave little heed to the
news. It seemed to us that we were so far in the wilder-
ness, beyond reach of either redskins or whites, that we
would not be molested, whatever might take place, and
all our efforts were bent toward improving the ranch
and increasing our herds and flocks.
So far as I was concerned, I thought only of the sheep.
I could not understand why the savages should come
where we were, because we had nothing to tempt them
save our live stock.
We prospered exceedingly as time wore on, and lived
contentedly, hearing little or nothing from the outer
world. It was as if we were in a country by ourselves,
for during the two years we had been on the Trinity
we had had no visitors, except the two Mexicans and
those settlers of whom I have spoken.
PHILIP OF TEXAS — IO
144 PHILIP OF TEXAS
TEXAS JOINS THE UNION
Before coming into Texas to live we had heard it
said that the citizens of the republic were making
efforts to be annexed to the United States ; but father
had given little heed to such talk, believing that the
people of the States would hesitate lest difficulties with
Mexico be brought about.
We knew nothing of what was going on outside
our ranch, and were not counting on hearing im-
portant news. In the spring of 1845, while I was
rejoicing over the wondrous increase in my flock,
and father was priding himself upon the fact that
his land was growing each day more and more valu-
able, two mounted men drove up just at night-
fall and asked for food and shelter. As we had
not had any visitors for nearly two years, you
cannot imagine how eager we were to grant their
request, and how earnestly we strove to make them
welcome.
In so doing we were well repaid, for then we learned
that the republic of Texas had ceased to exist. The
visitors told us we were living in one of the states of
the Union, for the act of annexation had been signed
by President John Tyler on the first day of March in
the year 1845, and a convention had been held later at
Austin to ratify the resolution.
TEXAS JOINS THE UNION
145
I had brought
with me from Boli-
var County a small
American flag, but
had not hoisted it
because of being a
citizen of the re-
public whose ensign
contained but a
single star.
Within five min-
utes after learn-
ing that Texas was
really a part of the
Union, I brought
out the Stars and
Stripes and fastened
it to the topmost
branches of the
largest pecan tree
inthemotte. Then
I saluted it with
as many charges of
powder as I could
afford to spend, for
you must know that on the Trinity at that time powder
and ball were not only scarce but expensive.
146
PHILIP OF TEXAS
My store of ammunition
was nearly exhausted by such
a celebration; but father
promised that very soon we
would drive some of the cattle
and a few of the sheep to
Dallas, and there sell them
to get sufficient money to buy
the supplies which we were
needing.
These visitors of ours had
come to spy out the land
with an idea of making a set-
tlement near our ranch, and
while it was pleasant to look
forward to having near neigh-
bors, I was not pleased with
the idea of being forced to
take my flocks farther afield
in order to find fresh pastur-
age, as must happen in case
many people took up land
in our vicinity.
For mother's sake, how-
ever, I was pleased, because
she was filled with delight at the idea of having some
one near with whom she could visit.
WAR WITH MEXICO
WAR WITH MEXICO
With the coming of strangers, and the building of
new homes near us, we began to hear more of what
was being done in the outer world, and when father
and Zeba went down to Dallas to sell a few cattle and
sheep, they brought back the surprising news that the
United States was at war with Mexico.
We were told that the younger men of Texas were
volunteering as soldiers, and that much blood might
be shed.
By this time I was fifteen years old, and it seemed
to me that it was my duty to leave home, and to
148
PHILIP OF TEXAS
abandon my plans of getting rich through sheep raising,
in order to do what I could in defense of the state of
which I claimed to
be a citizen.
...-•'
Father soon gave
me to understand, however,
that I was not yet old
enough to take up arms. He insisted that duty called
me to remain where I was, and that we were doing
our duty by the state so long as we remained on
the ranch raising live stock, for if war was continued
any length of time, cattle and sheep would be required
in order to supply the army with food.
I therefore gave up all thoughts of enlisting. Per-
haps I was the more willing to do this because of the
SELLING WOOL
149
sorrow that I should feel if forced to leave my flock,
which now numbered nearly five hundred. But when-
ever John or Zeba was at liberty to herd my flock, I
frequently walked many miles in order to learn what
was going on in the war.
SELLING WOOL
I was the one who brought to our ranch the news
that the Mexicans had bombarded Fort Brown, May
4, 1846, when Major Brown was killed ; also word
from Dallas of the battle of Palo Alto. Then we heard
from Monterev, and but for the fact that I had three
•' /
years' shearing of wool to sell, I believe I might have
enlisted despite all father could have said.
PHILIP OF TEXAS
It was necessary, however, that I sell this wool at
a time wheu the prices were high, and during the two
months which followed the battle of Monterey I spent
all my time freighting the fleeces from the ranch to
Dallas, using one of the big wagons with eight mules,
and taking Zeba with me as assistant.
When I had in my pocket the money which had been
paid for the wool, it seemed as if I might really call
myself a ranchman. I was so proud of my success
that I almost lost sight of the fact that other young
fellows, most likely some of them no older than I, were
PEACE ON THE TRINITY 151
putting on the uniforms of enlisted men, and taking
their places in the ranks to defend the state in which
were their homes.
Once we heard that the Comanches were on the war-
path, and there were times when it seemed certain we
might be attacked at any moment. Then father put
Bar-O Ranch in a state of defense. He brought from
Dallas a good supply of weapons, and we fitted to the
windows of our house heavy shutters in which were
loopholes.
PEACE ON THE TRINITY
But the Lord was good to us settlers on the Trinity ;
for He permitted no blood-craving Indian to come our
way. It seemed at times almost as if it was a crime
for us to prosper so wondrously well, while in other parts
of the state the settlers were struggling against the sav-
ages, or standing in battle array before the Mexicans.
Indeed, I was very nearly ashamed because no harm
came to us on the Trinity, because our worldly goods
were increasing day by day, and because Bar-O
Ranch was rapidly becoming one of the best in the
state.
But for the fact that many others have told the story
of how Texas won her independence, how she flourished
or decayed as a free republic during ten years, and how
she was finally annexed to the United States, I would
be glad to tell more of these things to you. They
152 PHILIP OF TEXAS
could not fail to be entertaining as well as instructive,
for they show how a people with a true purpose before
them overcame the many obstacles which confronted
them and finally made Texas what she is to-day, one
of the brightest stars in the blue field of Old Glorv,
MY DREAM FULFILLED
I may not have done all I might toward the settle-
ment of this grand state, but the dream which was
mine in Bolivar County has at last been fulfilled.
The flock which numbered twelve when I left the old
home has increased to more than five thousand, and
my sale of wool each year amounts to as much as that
of any other ranchman within two hundred miles of
us. Furthermore, in addition to my sheep, I claim
a full interest with father in Bar-O Ranch, which is in
itself no mean property, and am duly thankful for
all the good things of this life which have come
to me.
M
Yet there is in my heart at this moment, and ever
will be, a keen regret, that I entirely forgot one ad-
monition from the Bible which has in these past years
stood out so boldly in my mind. How much better is
it to get wisdom than gold ! And to get understanding
is rather to be chosen than silver.
It is true there were no opportunities for me when
we first settled on the banks of the Trinity, but if I had
MY DREAM FULFILLED
153
struggled half as hard to get wisdom as I have struggled
to hold my flocks prosperous, then I could now look
back with real pride upon what I have accomplished.
If I had done this, there would now be no happier
person in this great state than Philip of Texas.
NZV' ;
KINGSERiuGE B
RARY
NT
3041 KINGSBRIDGE AVENUE
BOOKS CONSULTED IN WRITING
PHILIP OF TEXAS
BAKER, D. W. C. : A Texas Scrap Book. A. S. Barnes & Co.
BOLTON & BARKER : Makers of Texas. American Book Co.
BOND, OCTAVIA ZOLLICOFFER : Old Tales Retold. Smith &
Lamar.
BRAMAN, D. E. E. : Information about Texas. J. B. Lippincott
& Co.
BROWN, JOHN HENRY : History of Texas. Daniell, St. Louis.
DEWEES, W. B. : Letter from an Early Settler of Texas. Com-
piled by Cara Cardelle. Hull, 1854.
FOOT, HENRY STUART : Texas and the Texans. Thomas Cow-
perthwait & Co.
GARRISON, GEORGE P. : Texas. Houghton, Mifflin and Company.
LUBBOCK, FRANCIS RICHARD : Six Decades in Texas. Gammel
Book Co.
MAILLARD, N. DORAN : The History of the Republic of Texas.
Smith, Elder & Co.
SANTLEBEN, AUGUST : A Texas Pioneer. Neale Publishing Co.
SMITH, ASHBEL : Reminiscences of the Texas Republic. His-
torical Society of Galveston.
YOAKUM, HENDERSON : History of Texas. Redfield, New York.
NOV 1 8 1942
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